How one German breakthrough and one Dutch question reveal Europe’s next quantum challenge

German quantum company SAXON Q claims to have achieved one of quantum computing’s long-standing ambitions: a room-temperature quantum processor that fits inside a standard 19-inch server rack. If the technology proves scalable, quantum computing may be moving beyond specialised laboratories and into ordinary computing infrastructure.

Yet the announcement immediately raises a more fundamental question.

“Where are the lasers?”

The question, posed by Professor Martijn Heck of Eindhoven University of Technology, shifts the discussion away from qubit counts and engineering claims towards something far more important.

If quantum computing is truly leaving the laboratory, what has happened to the complex photonic infrastructure traditionally required to control it?

Perhaps that question tells us more about the future of quantum computing than the processor itself.

🟦 Why do the lasers matter?

To most readers, lasers sound like a technical detail. For photonics researchers, they are part of the architecture itself.

Diamond-based quantum processors rely on precisely controlled light to initialise, manipulate and read the quantum states of their qubits. Traditionally, this has required external lasers, mirrors and carefully aligned optical systems. That is why Professor Heck’s question matters.

If a quantum computer now fits inside a conventional server rack, what happened to that optical infrastructure? Was it eliminated Miniaturised? Or has much of it been integrated into photonic integrated circuits (PICs), allowing much of the optical complexity to disappear inside the hardware itself?

If the latter is true, the breakthrough extends well beyond quantum computing. It would also represent an important milestone for integrated photonics, an area in which Europe has quietly built world-leading expertise.

🟦 Are we measuring the wrong breakthrough?

Much of the attention surrounding quantum computing still revolves around a single number. More qubits. Larger processors. Higher performance. But technological history suggests that revolutionary industries are rarely built on impressive specifications alone.

Semiconductors transformed the world when they became manufacturable. Integrated photonics became commercially viable when optical components could be fabricated reliably on chips. Artificial intelligence accelerated when GPUs evolved from specialist hardware into industrial products.

Perhaps quantum computing is approaching the same transition. Not because processors are becoming dramatically larger. But because they are becoming manufacturable, deployable and economically scalable.

🟦 Is manufacturing the real breakthrough?

One of SAXON Q’s most important announcements received surprisingly little attention. The company reports increasing the manufacturing yield of usable diamond qubits from roughly one to ten percent to more than eighty-five percent through a new implantation process. That figure may sound less exciting than “512 qubits”.

Yet industrial history repeatedly demonstrates that manufacturing yield often determines whether a technology remains confined to research laboratories or evolves into industrial infrastructure.

Factories depend on repeatability. Infrastructure depends on reliability. Without manufacturability, there is no industrial revolution.

🟦 Is the real challenge no longer the processor, but the interconnect?

SAXON Q’s processor consists of thirty-two independent quantum cores, each containing sixteen qubits. Critics argue that this resembles a cluster of smaller quantum processors rather than one unified 512-qubit computer.

The criticism deserves attention. But it also points towards a larger question.

How will these quantum cores ultimately communicate?

As quantum systems continue to scale, the defining challenge may no longer lie inside individual processors, but in the connections between them.

Increasingly, researchers expect those connections to rely on photonic interconnects, using photons rather than electrical signals to transfer quantum information between quantum processors.

If that proves correct, Professor Heck’s question becomes even more significant.

“Where are the lasers?”

Perhaps they have not disappeared. Perhaps they have simply become part of the infrastructure.

🟦 What if the invisible infrastructure is the real story?

Every technological revolution rests on infrastructure that most people never see. Artificial intelligence depends on data centres. The internet depends on fibre-optic networks. Semiconductors depend on advanced lithography. Quantum computing depends on sophisticated photonic systems. Public attention naturally focuses on the visible product.

History, however, is often shaped by the invisible systems underneath. Infrastructure rarely attracts attention when it functions. It becomes visible only when it fails. Or when someone asks the right question.

“Where are the lasers?”

🟦 Can Europe turn scientific leadership into industrial leadership?

Europe has spent decades building world-class expertise in photonics, precision engineering and quantum research. The next challenge is different.

Can Europe transform scientific excellence into scalable industrial infrastructure?

If companies like SAXON Q succeed, supported by Europe’s broader photonics ecosystem, quantum computing may follow the same path as semiconductors and integrated photonics before it.

Not simply becoming more powerful. But becoming deployable.

The Signal

Perhaps the future of quantum computing will not be decided by the company that builds the largest processor.

It may instead belong to those who succeed in making quantum computing manufacturable, deployable and economically scalable.

That requires more than quantum physics. It requires manufacturing. System engineering. Photonic integration. And an industrial ecosystem capable of turning scientific breakthroughs into infrastructure.

Professor Martijn Heck’s deceptively simple question captures that transformation perfectly. Not because lasers are merely optical components. But because every mature technology eventually hides its greatest complexity behind infrastructure.

The most important question may therefore no longer be how many qubits a quantum computer contains. It may be whether Europe is quietly building the invisible photonic foundations that will allow quantum computing to leave the laboratory and enter the real world.

---

Credit

Illustration by ChatGPT for Altair Media

Caption

Conceptual illustration depicting the transition from visible laboratory optics to invisible photonic infrastructure. Inspired by Professor Martijn Heck’s question, “Where are the lasers?”, the artwork explores how Europe’s strengths in photonics, precision engineering and manufacturing may shape the next phase of quantum computing.