A team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei published results on a next-generation photonic quantum processor, claiming new records for sampling tasks beyond classical reach.
The system, built on the Jiuzhang lineage of Gaussian boson-sampling experiments, scales the number of detected photons further and improves loss budgets across the optical interferometer.
While useful applications of such sampling devices remain limited, the experiments are widely watched as benchmarks of national capability in quantum hardware engineering.
China's state-backed quantum programme spans superconducting, photonic, and trapped-ion approaches, with Hefei and Shanghai serving as the principal research clusters.