Designer molecules could be the missing piece for scalable quantum computers

Most quantum computing platforms were built without photonic networking in mind, creating a scaling wall. PIQC proposes using rationally engineered carbene molecules — with millisecond-coherence spins, synthetically placed nuclear qubits, and bright optical emission — as plug-and-play quantum nodes wired together via lithium niobate photonic chips. The architecture pairs these hardware choices with error-correcting codes tailored to the platform's strengths, offering a concrete blueprint for fault-tolerant distributed quantum computing that doesn't require rebuilding existing fabrication infrastructure.