Marko Cetina Receives NSF CAREER Award to Advance Ion-Based Quantum Computing
Assistant Professor of Physics and Duke Quantum Center member Marko Cetina has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award totaling $406,456 for his project, CAREER: ColleqtIon: Collective Ion Optical Interconnects for Quantum Computing. The award will support research aimed at using optical resonators to overcome key barriers to scaling ion-based quantum computing and simulation technologies.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve certain complex problems far more efficiently than conventional computers. Challenges in optimization, cryptography, materials science, and biology often become increasingly difficult as system size grows, limiting the effectiveness of classical computing approaches. For selected applications—such as factoring large numbers and simulating quantum systems—quantum computing offers significant performance advantages.
This technology is particularly promising for modeling inherently quantum phenomena in fields such as materials science, nuclear physics, and chemistry. Advances in this area could improve our understanding of processes such as superconductivity, electron transfer during photosynthesis, and nitrogen fixation, creating opportunities for transformative scientific and technological breakthroughs.
Despite this promise, building practical quantum computers remains a significant challenge. Solving real-world problems will require quantum operations with much higher levels of accuracy and reliability than current systems can achieve. One widely pursued solution is quantum error correction, a technique that protects quantum information by encoding a single logical qubit across multiple physical qubits. However, the number of physical qubits needed increases rapidly as error rates rise, making scalability a central challenge for the field.
Among existing quantum computing platforms, trapped-ion systems have demonstrated some of the lowest error rates. Yet expanding these systems to larger numbers of qubits has proven difficult. Through exploratory research, Dr. Cetina is investigating the use of long linear chains of trapped ions to create systems with more than 50 individually addressable, highly connected qubits. At the same time, his group is exploring the use of optical resonators as fast and efficient interconnects capable of linking trapped-ion logical qubits across short distances.
The CAREER-funded project focuses on a critical technical challenge: controlling the interaction between trapped ions and optical resonators. Successfully addressing this challenge could provide a scalable pathway for connecting large numbers of qubits while maintaining the low error rates required for practical quantum computing. Current trapped-ion quantum systems typically contain fewer than 60 physical qubits, and scaling beyond this threshold remains a major hurdle across all quantum computing platforms. Efficiently connecting many qubits without sacrificing performance is one of the field’s most pressing challenges.
Dr. Cetina’s research seeks to develop new approaches to quantum system design that could help overcome these limitations. More broadly, the project will contribute to the long-term effort to build practical quantum technologies while helping train the next generation of quantum scientists and engineers. Through innovative research, sustained investment, and collaboration across the scientific community, advances in quantum computing may ultimately enable solutions to some of society’s most complex scientific and technological problems. His goal is to train a new generation of atomic physicists to tackle quantum problems while promoting intellectual and experimental curiosity, while seeking to engage a diverse student body through research, teaching and outreach, and grow the quantum technology workforce.
Cetina also acknowledges support from his department and college, as well as from the Duke Quantum Center. Project funding is estimated to run through July 2030.