A joint study by ICMol and INMA (Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragón), involving Eugenio Coronado’s group, has demonstrated a new way to strongly couple magnetic qubits — the basic units of quantum information — with magnetic excitations known as magnons. The breakthrough, published in Newton, could contribute to the development of future quantum technologies based on increasingly miniaturised solid-state materials.

The research was supervised by María José Martínez-Pérez, David Zueco and Eugenio Coronado. The contribution of the Institute of Molecular Science of the Universitat de València (ICMol) was particularly relevant in the field of materials: Eugenio Coronado, together with Samuel Mañas-Valero, Carla Boix-Constant and Iván Gómez-Muñoz, contributed to the selection, synthesis and integration into devices — cavities — of the magnetic materials designed for the study.

In quantum computers and other emerging technologies, one of the major challenges is enabling qubits to communicate with one another in an efficient and controlled way. Traditionally, this communication has been achieved using photons, the particles associated with light. However, when working with spin qubits — based on the magnetic properties of atoms or molecules — microwave photons do not couple efficiently.

The new study proposes an alternative: using magnons. Magnons, also known as spin waves, are collective excitations that appear in magnetic materials. In a similar way to how a wave propagates through water, the magnetic moments of the material oscillate and propagate through the magnetic medium. Because magnons can be confined in much smaller spaces than photons, they offer a more promising route to achieving strong coupling with spin qubits, potentially enabling more efficient communication between qubits.

To demonstrate this, the team combined two types of materials. On the one hand, they used CrSBr, a material made up of magnetic layers. On the other, they used GdW10, a magnetic molecule that can behave as a spin qubit. By placing the molecular crystal on top of the magnetic material, the researchers observed that the two systems not only interact, but reach the so-called strong-coupling regime, in which they exchange energy coherently.

One of the key aspects of the work is that this interaction can be controlled in a simple way using an external magnetic field. By changing the orientation of the field, the researchers modify the chirality of the magnons — that is, the direction in which their magnetic excitation precesses. This control makes it possible to activate or weaken the magnon–qubit interaction without redesigning the device, simply by changing the orientation of the applied field.

The result represents the first experimental demonstration of a magnonic cavity, a new quantum platform in which magnons replace photons as mediators of quantum interaction. This approach opens up new possibilities for studying and controlling spin qubits, which are of interest because they can preserve quantum information for long periods of time, although until now they have been difficult to connect efficiently with one another.

In the long term, this strategy could contribute to the development of more compact and efficient quantum devices, the design of new forms of communication between magnetic qubits, and the advancement of quantum technologies based entirely on magnetic materials. The work also strengthens ICMol’s research line in molecular and magnetic materials for quantum technologies, a field in which Eugenio Coronado’s group has a long-standing track record.

Article reference:
David García-Pons, Jorge Pérez-Bailón, Carla Boix-Constant, Iván Gómez-Muñoz, Xavier del Arco, Samuel Mañas-Valero, Eugenio Coronado, David Zueco and María José Martínez-Pérez. Strong spin-magnon coupling in a van der Waals magnet with tunable chiral symmetry. Newton, 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.newton.2026.100515.

Article: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S2950-6360(26)00117-9