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    • Quantum Innovators - Winter 2024

    (Image credit: Francesco Tani)
    This schematic shows the differences between classical optics vs. quantum optics for the team’s work.
    Dec. 20, 2024
    (Image credit: K. Arjas et al., Nat. Commun., 15, 9544 [2024]; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53952-5)
    Vortex laser pattern from 12-fold rotationally symmetric quasicrystal structure.
    Dec. 16, 2024
    Digital Crossroads Data Center in Hammond, Indiana.
    Dec. 11, 2024
    (Image credit: Benjamin Yuen)
    The “shape” (expected intensity distribution) of a single photon emitted by an atom on the surface of a silicon nanoparticle.
    Dec. 2, 2024
    (Image credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM)
    IBM Quantum Heron r2 is the second gen (r2) of IBM Heron processors.
    Nov. 29, 2024

    More content from Quantum Innovators - Winter 2024

    FIGURE 1. A misaligned lens inserted into a Bessel beam pre-aligned to an ASM.
    Precision optical alignment is currently used for centering lenses within cells, but a call from a quantum computing company made us realize it would be more helpful to quantum...
    Nov. 27, 2024
    FIGURE 1. Quantum tech investment timeline (2020 to 2024). Investment of $7.06B across 296 funding rounds shows yearly distribution among major quantum players and smaller deals combined (excluding national quantum strategies and government programs).
    Three threads, three data sets, and two contradicting narratives. I’m about to walk you through quantum tech’s funding story that can be read as both a bull and bear market case...
    Nov. 22, 2024
    (Image credit: Phlux Technology)
    FIGURE 1. Cryptographic keys ensure controlled access to communication channels.
    Avalanche photodiodes, infrared sensors capable of detecting single photons, are at the heart of many QKD systems. Their sensitivity allows them to discern the faintest of light...
    Nov. 18, 2024
    (Image credit: NTU Singapore)
    Two thin flakes of niobium oxide dichloride stacked on each other and photographed under a light microscope. One flake’s crystalline grain (gray flake) is positioned perpendicularly to the grain of the other flake (green flake).
    Very thin materials can create entangled pairs of photons to be used as quantum bits.
    Nov. 14, 2024
    FIGURE 1. Depiction of the ultrahigh-density optical memory. Red dots represent rare earth ion impurities, and blue dots represent defects onto which the excitation is stored by using near-field energy transfer processes. Many optically addressable RE ions within the diffraction-limited excitation volume (red beam) result in an enhanced bit density.
    A combined framework of quantum electrodynamics and quantum mechanical electronic structure theories reveals a promising pathway to exceed the current limitation on data storage...
    Nov. 13, 2024
    (Image credit: Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics)
    A neutral atom qubit register, which continuously reloads new atoms into the register.
    A qubit register of 1,200 neutral atoms within an optical lattice of laser light designed to ‘reload itself’ was kept in continuous operation for an hour—progress toward scaling...
    Nov. 7, 2024
    (Photo credit: Heriot-Watt University)
    Dr. Ross Donaldson and Professor Gerald Buller pictured with equipment that will be used in the new optical ground station.
    The Hub Optical Ground Station (HOGS) based at Heriot-Watt University will feature state-of-the-art equipment—single-photon detectors and adaptive optics systems—for quantum key...
    Oct. 24, 2024