Quantum phenomena are typically observable at length and time scales smaller than those of our everyday experience, often involving individual particles or excitations. The past few decades have seen a revolution in the ability to structure matter at the nanoscale, and experiments at the single particle level have become commonplace. This has opened wide new avenues for exploring and harnessing quantum mechanical effects in condensed matter. These quantum phenomena, in turn, have the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, compute and probe the nanoscale world. Here, we review developments in key areas of quantum research in light of the nanotechnologies that enable them, with a view to what the future holds. Materials and devices with nanoscale features are used for quantum metrology and sensing, as building blocks for quantum computing, and as sources and detectors for quantum communication. They enable explorations of quantum behaviour and unconventional states in nano- and opto-mechanical systems, low-dimensional systems, molecular devices, nano-plasmonics, quantum electrodynamics, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and more. This rapidly expanding intersection of nanotechnology and quantum science/technology is mutually beneficial to both fields, laying claim to some of the most exciting scientific leaps of the last decade, with more on the horizon.

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Superconducting resonators enable fast characterization and readout of mesoscopic quantum devices. Finding ways to perform measurements of interest on such devices using resonators only is therefore of great practical relevance. We report an experimental investigation of an InAs nanowire multiquantum dot device by probing gigahertz resonators connected to the device. First, we demonstrate accurate extraction of the dc conductance from measurements of the high-frequency admittance. Because our technique does not rely on dc calibration, it could potentially obviate the need for dc measurements in semiconductor qubit devices. Second, we demonstrate multiplexed gate sensing and the detection of charge tunneling on microsecond timescales. The gigahertz detection of dispersive resonator shifts allows rapid acquisition of charge stability diagrams, as well as resolving charge tunneling in the device with a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 15 in 1μs. Our measurements show that gigahertz-frequency resonators may serve as a universal tool for fast tuneup and high-fidelity readout of semiconductor qubits.@en

The fundamental concept of light–matter interaction is routinely realized by coupling the quantized electric field in a cavity to the dipole moment of a real or an artificial atom. A recent proposal^1,2, motivated by the prospect of overcoming the decohering effects of distant charge fluctuations, suggests that introduction of and coupling to an electric quadrupole moment of a single electron can be achieved by confining it in a triple quantum dot. Here, we show an experimental realization of this concept by connecting a superconducting microwave resonator to the middle of the three dots, such that the dipole coupling becomes negligible. We demonstrate strong coupling to the electron quadrupole moment and determine that the coherence of our system is limited by short-range charge noise. Our experiment enables the construction and detection of a complex electronic state of a single electron in a solid-state environment that does not exist as such for a free electron.

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