Direct detection is notoriously hard for a plethora of dark matter models and models of dark relics due to their inability to impart enough energy to the direct detection target. Detecting these dark relics with energy deficit involves tackling the twin challenges of a target that can convert small amounts of dark matter kinetic energy into standard model quanta as well as a detector that can detect these quanta. In this talk, I identify solutions to these challenges with the tools developed in quantum information science:
qubits and electromagnetic read-out. I show that data from the remarkable stability of cold ion quantum computers sets stringent limits on the ambient population of locally thermalized millicharged particles. I also propose a direct detection concept involving molecular excitation for MeV mass dark matter with subsequent detection by near-IR single quantum detectors such as SNSPDs, MKIDs and TESs.