IonQ (IONQ) said Wednesday it achieved a milestone in developing high-speed, mixed-species quantum logic gates for trapped-ion quantum computing and networking.

The company, in collaboration with Australian National University, introduced a method using nanosecond laser pulses to improve the speed and accuracy of quantum gates between different atomic species, IonQ said.

The quantum computing company said the approach is expected to increase gate speeds to megahertz levels, supporting quantum information transfer and reducing errors.

IonQ said it has filed for patent protection for the technology.

Shares of the company were up by nearly 3% in recent premarket activity.