TL;DR
Get the latest gadgets delivered free — and shop member deals
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Access to Prime Big Deal Days deals on October 6–7
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
Charles (Chuck) Black, named director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) in June 2025, is applying decades of materials science and semiconductor manufacturing experience to quantum computing. C2QA researchers have built superconducting tantalum transmon qubits with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond — described as the longest ever reported — and are now pursuing silicon-compatible quantum hardware that can be manufactured at scale.
Charles (Chuck) Black, who became director of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) in June 2025, is leading a 28-institution national research effort to solve two of quantum computing’s hardest problems: making better qubits and manufacturing quantum hardware at scale. According to a report published by The Quantum Insider on September 30, 2026, C2QA researchers have built superconducting tantalum qubits with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond — described in the report as the longest ever reported — and are now developing quantum devices compatible with existing semiconductor manufacturing.
C2QA is a National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of five such centers nationwide. The center spans 28 institutions across national laboratories, academia, and industry, and was launched in 2020 to investigate whether the constituent superconducting materials were limiting qubit performance after more than a decade of progress with transmon qubits made from aluminum and niobium stalled.
A central strand of the research involves tantalum, a superconductor with fewer of the oxidation states suspected of degrading qubit performance. C2QA researchers at Princeton University began building qubits from tantalum instead of conventional materials, and used characterization capabilities at Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) and the National Synchrotron Light Source II to understand how oxidation of tantalum’s surface affects performance. According to the report, the team achieved the world’s best-performing superconducting transmon qubits, with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond.
Black’s path to the role draws on two decades at Brookhaven’s CFN — which he directed from 2016 to 2025 after joining as one of its first group leaders in 2006 — and ten years at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center (1996–2006), where he and collaborators pioneered polymer self-assembly for fabricating semiconductor devices. He also serves as deputy associate laboratory director for Brookhaven’s Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate.
Why Materials Choices Shape Quantum Computing’s Future
The tantalum result matters because qubit performance had plateaued with aluminum and niobium transmons, raising the question of whether the materials themselves — not the designs — were the bottleneck. C2QA’s findings support the idea that material substitution can deliver major performance gains. Black draws a direct parallel to the history of microelectronics: “I like remembering that the first transistors in microelectronics were made from germanium semiconductors, not silicon,” he said, adding, “I wonder if it’s possible that aluminum and niobium are the ‘germaniums’ of quantum computing.”
The manufacturing angle is equally consequential. Better qubits alone will not produce scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers; the hardware must also be fabricable at scale. C2QA’s pursuit of quantum devices built with silicon-compatible materials that align with existing manufacturing capabilities could, if successful, allow future large-scale production using infrastructure the semiconductor industry already has.
From Superconductor Research to a National Center
Black’s career has tracked the evolution of quantum computing itself. As a doctoral student at Harvard University, he used superconducting materials to explore fundamental physics questions — a niche area at the time — and, by his own account, did not expect to work with them again. “I feel like I’ve come full circle,” he said.
While Black built his materials science career at Brookhaven, physicists at Yale University invented the superconducting transmon qubit, now a leading quantum computing architecture. When C2QA launched in 2020, the center brought together leading physicists — including the transmon inventors — with materials scientists to test whether superconducting materials were the limiting factor in qubit performance. Black’s prior work at CFN, alongside thousands of visiting researchers, informed the principle now central to C2QA’s mission: that materials science advances enable discoveries across disciplines.
“I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
— Charles Black, director of C2QA
What the Qubit Results Have Not Yet Achieved
Several points remain open. The report, which draws on a press release, describes the tantalum transmon lifetimes as the longest ever reported, but does not specify the publication venue, peer-review status, or measurement conditions for the result. It is not clear whether tantalum qubits can be fabricated consistently at scale, or how they would integrate into full modular quantum systems. Black’s comparison between aluminum and niobium and microelectronics’ germanium is framed explicitly as a question — “I wonder if it’s possible” — not a conclusion. The report also does not state timelines or milestones for achieving fault-tolerant quantum computing, and the specific roles of the 28 partner institutions are not detailed.
C2QA’s Path Toward Scalable Systems
According to the report, C2QA will continue its dual-track strategy: advancing materials science to improve qubit performance while developing modular system architectures and silicon-compatible quantum devices aligned with existing manufacturing capabilities. The center states its goal is delivering breakthroughs that enable scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Black, who emphasizes collaboration — “I’ve always loved being on teams,” he said — is positioned to guide the center through its next phase, though the report does not announce specific upcoming projects, funding details, or target dates. Readers can expect further institutional announcements from Brookhaven and DOE as C2QA’s research programs progress.
Key Questions
What is C2QA?
The Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage is a National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Launched in 2020, it spans 28 institutions from national labs, academia, and industry, working on materials science and modular architectures for scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Who is Charles Black?
Black is a materials scientist who became C2QA director in June 2025. He directed Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials from 2016 to 2025, joined it as a group leader in 2006, and spent 1996–2006 as a research staff member at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He also serves as deputy associate laboratory director for Brookhaven’s Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate.
Why is tantalum being used for qubits?
According to C2QA, tantalum has fewer oxidation states suspected of degrading qubit performance than the aluminum and niobium traditionally used in transmon qubits. Researchers used Brookhaven characterization facilities to understand how tantalum’s surface oxidation affects performance, resulting in transmon qubits with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond.
Does a one-millisecond qubit lifetime mean practical quantum computers are near?
No. The report states that improved qubit performance alone will not enable scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Manufacturing quantum hardware at scale remains a separate, unresolved challenge, which is why C2QA is also pursuing silicon-compatible device designs.
What are C2QA’s next milestones?
The report does not specify dates or upcoming milestones. It states that C2QA will continue work on superconducting materials and on quantum devices built with silicon-compatible materials that could enable future large-scale production, within its broader goal of scalable, fault-tolerant systems.
Source: rss
Fall Picks
fall essentials
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
