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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. The center reports that its tantalum-based transmon research produced qubits with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond; scaling hardware for fault-tolerant systems remains a separate challenge.
Charles Black, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, is leading research into superconducting materials and manufacturing methods aimed at making quantum computing hardware more scalable. A report published Sept. 30 says C2QA researchers are studying materials including tantalum after reporting transmon qubit lifetimes exceeding one millisecond; producing improved qubits at scale remains an additional challenge.
C2QA is a U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Brookhaven. The center brings together 28 institutions spanning national laboratories, universities and industry. Black was named its director in June 2025 and also serves as deputy associate laboratory director for Brookhaven’s Energy and Photon Sciences Directorate.
One C2QA research effort examines whether the superconducting materials used in transmon qubits limit performance. Researchers from Princeton University built qubits using tantalum instead of aluminum and niobium. The report says tantalum has fewer oxidation states suspected of degrading performance, and that analysis at Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials and National Synchrotron Light Source II helped researchers study how surface oxidation affects qubits.
The center reports that this work led to transmon qubits with lifetimes exceeding one millisecond, which the source describes as the longest ever reported. That performance claim is attributed to the center’s account; the report does not provide an independent assessment in the supplied material. Black’s other focus is how to manufacture quantum devices using silicon-compatible materials and approaches aligned with existing production capabilities.
From Qubit Gains to Scaled Hardware
Longer-lived qubits may help researchers address errors that limit quantum computations. The reported result points to materials and surface chemistry as areas that can affect qubit performance, alongside device design. It does not by itself show that a practical, fault-tolerant quantum computer has been built.
Manufacturing is a distinct barrier. A material or device that performs well in a research setting still needs a viable path to repeatable production across larger systems. C2QA’s effort to connect materials research with manufacturing experience reflects that gap between improving individual components and building quantum hardware at scale.
Black’s background spans nanoscale materials research at Brookhaven and semiconductor-device work at IBM. That experience informs the center’s interest in materials and fabrication methods compatible with established manufacturing capabilities, though the report does not specify a production timeline or quantify how much scalability the approach could deliver.
Black’s Path From Materials to Qubits
Black worked at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1996 to 2006, where he and collaborators developed polymer self-assembly approaches for semiconductor devices, according to the report. He joined Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials in 2006 as one of its first group leaders and led the facility from 2016 through 2025.
C2QA launched in 2020, bringing physicists and materials scientists together to examine challenges in quantum computing. The report links its materials research to a period when performance improvements in aluminum- and niobium-based transmons had slowed. Princeton researchers within the center then explored tantalum, while Brookhaven facilities contributed materials characterization work.
Black said his earlier work with superconductors as a doctoral student at Harvard had been focused on fundamental physics. He described returning to the field through quantum computing as coming “full circle.”
““I feel like I’ve come full circle.””
— Charles Black, C2QA director
What the Report Does Not Establish
The source describes qubit lifetimes exceeding one millisecond as the longest ever reported, but the supplied material does not include an independent comparison, the exact measurement conditions or a publication citation for the result. It also does not specify how the reported qubit performance compares across operating conditions or devices.
It remains unclear how quickly tantalum-based devices can be produced repeatedly at larger scales, what manufacturing yields they could achieve, or whether silicon-compatible approaches will resolve the practical barriers to building fault-tolerant systems. The report gives no target date for those milestones. Improved qubit lifetime is one research result, not evidence that a scalable quantum computer is ready.
Research Moves Toward Manufacturability
C2QA’s stated work continues on superconducting materials, device performance and modular system architectures. The center is also pursuing quantum devices made with silicon-compatible materials that may fit existing manufacturing capabilities, drawing on Black’s experience in semiconductor research.
The report does not announce a next experiment, release date or production milestone. Future results would help clarify whether the tantalum findings can be reproduced across devices and connected to manufacturing methods that support larger quantum systems.
Key Questions
Who is Charles Black?
Charles Black is director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, a DOE research center. He was named director in June 2025 and previously led Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials.
What is C2QA researching?
C2QA researchers are studying materials such as tantalum for superconducting transmon qubits, as well as approaches to quantum hardware design and manufacturing. The center brings together 28 institutions.
What result does the report attribute to the tantalum research?
The report says the team achieved transmon qubit lifetimes exceeding one millisecond, described in the source as the longest ever reported. The supplied material does not include measurement details or an independent comparison.
Does this mean a scalable quantum computer has been built?
No such system is reported. The described result concerns qubit performance; manufacturing hardware at scale and building fault-tolerant systems remain goals and challenges.
Source: rss
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