A High-Performance Light-Matter Quantum Network

高性能光物质量子网络

基本信息

批准号：
MR/V023845/1
负责人：
Patrick Ledingham
金额：
$ 159.85万
依托单位：
University of Southampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2022 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FV023845%2F1
关键词：
Performance Light Matter Quantum Network

项目摘要

Research Context: The internet has become an indispensable tool in today's society. However, data transfer over this network is fundamentally insecure. Security of data and protection against identity theft and cyber-attacks is of crucial importance for our current and future society. These security concerns are addressed with the invention of a quantum internet - a network based on encoding and transmitting information as quantum bits - as the principles of quantum physics ensure total and fundamental secure communication. Quantum networks are the missing key technology, however, a major roadblock remains to be overcome: scalability. Building quantum networks relies on generating large numbers of individual quantum objects (in this case photons - single quanta of light) and performing controlled interactions between them. However, the fragile nature of quantum objects means that successfully preparing even one happens by chance - like a coin toss. Adding more quantum objects to a network is like adding more coins to toss - the overall chance of getting all heads reduces greatly, and so a large-scale quantum network has never been achieved. I will address this crucial issue with a quantum optical memory - a device that can store and recall photons on demand enabling one to synchronise the successful "coin tosses" across the network. The overall aim is to build and exploit a high-performance light-matter quantum network.Aims/Objectives: To achieve this aim, I will utilise my expertise in quantum light-matter interactions to build an ultrafast, high-efficiency, low-noise quantum memory at wavelengths already used in the telecoms industry. I will utilise two complementary platforms with miniaturisation capability important for scale - warm alkali vapours and cryogenically cooled rare-earth ions in solids - together with quantum memory protocols that I have pioneered, to deliver a quantum memory performance at an unprecedented level. With this device, I will demonstrate a hybridised quantum light-matter interface with the storage and on-demand recall of photons ensuring that the quantum properties of the light are preserved. This demonstration forms the key technology for the basis of the network, where I will now use two quantum memories to efficiently interface and store photons from disparate quantum sources at remote locations - a two-node network. I will then scale this light-matter network to allow for the control of multiple memories and photons to enact quantum communication tasks for the first-time.Potential Applications: In the same way the invention of the transistor led to rapid advances in computation and communications, revolutionising the 20th century, quantum networks are the underpinning technology that have the potential to bring significant change and long-term social-economic impact in the 21st century. A high-performance light-matter quantum network will bring inherently secure communication, more accurate global clock synchronization for enhanced GPS accuracy, and could even allow extending the baselines of telescopes for improved observations. Networks of quantum objects can form quantum computers that are powerful enough to solve problems that current computers cannot, with the potential to impact methods of research in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and green energy sectors. Efficient simulation and optimised computation using quantum networks could provide benefits in epidemiology and genetic research, cut costs in medication design to treat new diseases, and help improve artificial light-harvesting devices for alternative energy sources, with many more useful applications likely to be discovered in the coming decades. In the shorter term, my project will aid in training the next generation of quantum scientists and generate valuable IP to be exploited by spinout companies, further forwarding the emergent quantum technologies industry in the UK.

研究环境：互联网已成为当今社会中必不可少的工具。但是，该网络上的数据传输从根本上是不安全的。数据和保护防止身份盗用和网络攻击的安全对于我们当前和未来的社会至关重要。这些安全问题是通过量子互联网的发明来解决的 - 量子互联网基于编码和传输信息作为量子位的网络 - 作为量子物理学的原理确保了总体和基本的安全通信。量子网络是缺少的关键技术，但是，主要的障碍仍然有待克服：可伸缩性。构建量子网络依赖于生成大量的单个量子对象（在这种情况下为光子 - 单量子的光）并在它们之间执行受控的相互作用。但是，量子对象的脆弱性质意味着即使是偶然地进行一个偶然的事情，就像硬币折腾一样。在网络中添加更多的量子对象就像添加更多的硬币折腾一样 - 使所有头的总体机会大大减少，因此从未实现过大规模的量子网络。我将使用量子光学内存来解决这个至关重要的问题 - 可以按需存储和回忆光子的设备，使人们能够同步整个网络的成功的“硬币折腾”。总体目的是建立和利用高性能的光量子量子网络。aims/目标：为了实现这一目标，我将利用我在量子光互动方面的专业知识来构建在电信行业已经使用的波长的超快，高效，低含量的量子内存。我将利用两个具有微型化能力的互补平台，对于尺度 - 温暖的碱蒸气和固体中低温冷却的稀土离子，以及我先开创的量子记忆方案，以前所未有的水平提供量子记忆性能。使用此设备，我将展示一个杂交量子光界面的界面，并对光子的存储和点击召回，以确保保留光的量子特性。该演示构成了网络基础的关键技术，现在我将使用两个量子记忆来有效地接口并存储来自远程位置的不同量子源的光子 - 两个节点网络。然后，我将扩展这个光线网络，以允许控制多个记忆和光子以制定量子通信任务的首次量子。潜在的应用：以相同的方式，晶体管的发明导致了计算和通信的快速发展，革新了20世纪，量子网络是一种潜在的，具有重大变化和长期变化和长期的经济学影响的潜在的领域。高性能的光量子量子网络将带来固有的安全通信，更准确的全局时钟同步，以增强GPS的精度，甚至可以扩展望远镜的基准，以改善观测值。量子对象的网络可以形成足够强大的量子计算机，以解决当前计算机无法的问题，并有可能影响医疗保健，药物和绿色能源领域的研究方法。使用量子网络的有效仿真和优化计算可以为流行病学和遗传研究提供益处，削减药物设计的成本以治疗新疾病，并有助于改善替代能源的人工轻降期设备，并在未来几十年中发现了许多更有用的应用程序。在较短的任期中，我的项目将有助于培训下一代量子科学家，并产生有价值的IP，以被旋转公司利用，进一步转发英国新兴的量子技术行业。