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Charles Black, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s C2QA since June 2025, is guiding research into superconducting materials and quantum hardware manufacturing. C2QA reports that tantalum transmon qubits developed by its researchers achieved lifetimes exceeding one millisecond; scaling those devices into practical, fault-tolerant systems remains a separate challenge.
Charles Black, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), is leading research into superconducting materials and manufacturing methods aimed at making quantum hardware more scalable. A report published September 30 describes the center’s work on tantalum-based superconducting qubits, including devices with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond, while emphasizing that better qubits alone do not solve the challenge of building large, fault-tolerant systems.
C2QA is a U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Brookhaven. The center brings together 28 institutions across national laboratories, universities and industry. Black was named its director in June 2025; he also serves as deputy associate laboratory director for Brookhaven’s Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate.
The research described focuses on superconducting transmon qubits, a type of quantum-computing component. C2QA researchers, including a team from Princeton University, investigated tantalum as an alternative to aluminum and niobium. The center’s account says tantalum has fewer oxidation states suspected of harming qubit performance, and that researchers used Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials and National Synchrotron Light Source II to study how surface oxidation affects the devices.
C2QA reports that the team achieved transmon qubit lifetimes of more than one millisecond, which the source describes as the longest ever reported. That performance claim is attributed to the center’s account; the supplied material does not provide a publication citation, comparison table or independent assessment. Black’s agenda also includes hardware compatible with existing manufacturing capabilities, drawing on his earlier semiconductor research at IBM.
From Qubit Performance to Production
Longer qubit lifetimes can help address one limit on quantum computation: quantum information is vulnerable to noise and loss. But improving an individual device is not the same as scaling a computer. Large systems require many components to work together, and practical, fault-tolerant machines must manage errors across that hardware.
The manufacturing question matters because a promising device may be difficult or costly to produce consistently at much larger scale. C2QA’s interest in silicon-compatible materials and established fabrication methods reflects an effort to connect materials research with the practical demands of production. The source describes that as a research direction, not as a demonstrated manufacturing result or a guarantee of commercial quantum computers.
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Black’s Materials and Semiconductor Path
Black’s work spans fundamental physics, nanoscale materials and semiconductor technology. He joined Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials in 2006, became its director in 2016 and led it through 2025. Before Brookhaven, he worked at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1996 to 2006, studying polymer self-assembly for semiconductor devices.
C2QA launched in 2020 to bring physicists and materials scientists together around quantum-computing challenges. Its researchers turned to tantalum amid questions about whether the materials used in transmon qubits were limiting further performance gains. The center’s work combines qubit development with materials characterization, an approach that links the properties of a device’s surfaces to how it performs.
“I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
— Charles Black, C2QA director
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Performance Claims and Scaling Gaps
The supplied report does not identify a peer-reviewed paper or give details needed to independently evaluate the claim that the qubit lifetimes are the longest ever reported. It also does not specify how many devices achieved lifetimes above one millisecond, the test conditions, or how performance varied across a group of qubits.
It remains unclear when, or whether, the materials and manufacturing research will produce quantum hardware at substantially larger scale. The source describes compatibility with existing manufacturing capabilities as a goal; it does not report a production-ready process, a completed fault-tolerant computer, or a timeline for either.
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C2QA’s Next Research Milestones
The next steps described by the center are continued study of how superconducting materials and surface oxidation affect qubit performance, alongside work on devices suited to scalable manufacturing. No specific delivery date or system-size milestone is given in the source material.
Readers should look for follow-up research publications and reported device results that specify test conditions, reproducibility and manufacturing performance. Those details would help clarify how the reported tantalum-qubit lifetimes translate into progress toward larger, fault-tolerant quantum systems.
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Key Questions
Who is Charles Black?
Charles Black is director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s C2QA and deputy associate laboratory director for its Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate. He previously led Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials and worked on semiconductor research at IBM.
What is C2QA researching?
C2QA is investigating superconducting materials, qubit performance and hardware manufacturing as part of research toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems. The center is led by Brookhaven and includes 28 institutions, according to the report.
What result did C2QA report for tantalum qubits?
The source says C2QA researchers achieved superconducting transmon qubit lifetimes of more than one millisecond and describes this as the longest ever reported. The supplied material does not include a study citation or enough testing details for independent evaluation.
Does the result mean a scalable quantum computer is ready?
No. A longer-lived qubit is a performance result, not a complete quantum computer. The center identifies scaling manufacturing and building fault-tolerant systems as ongoing challenges.
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