2019 promises to be a crucial year for the emerging field of quantum technologies. On the funding side, the Quantum Technologies Flagship of the European Union has kicked off with the first 20 projects,1 and the total funding is expected to reach €1bn over the coming decade.2 Other world regions are not being left behind: In the US, Congress has recently passed the National Quantum Initiative Act, likewise a 10-year program with a budget of $1.3bn. This bold concept is accompanied by further support from government agencies such as the DOE and NSF. Research activities are being intensified not only in academia and research laboratories but also in the R&D centers of giant corporations such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and in many other companies. A key goal is to couple ever more qubits and to demonstrate a working quantum computer that will be able to achieve the ‘holy grail’ of quantum supremacy in computational power – if not yet today or tomorrow, then certainly in the years to come. Last but not least, the Chinese government has announced the provision of no less than $10bn to create a National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences. China has already taken crucial steps in creating a quantum network, including satellite-based communication. So, clearly the world is not short of opportunities in pursuing new and exciting quantum science, as well as its applications. On the other hand, it is more than obvious that there are still many fundamental scientific questions to be solved, not to speak of the development of real technologies that are still in their infancy to be implemented on a broader scale. Our journal Advanced Quantum Technologies (QUTE) (www.advquantumtech.com), a young member of the renowned Advanced journal family published by Wiley-VCH, aims to provide a peer-reviewed high quality forum for these topics, ranging from the theoretical basics to future device applications. Key areas include quantum-based communication, computation, control, engineering, information, metrology, optics, sensing and simulation, as well as adjacent areas such as nanophotonics, quasiparticle excitations, topological materials, superconductors, micro- and nano-electromechanical systems, ultracold atoms and others. The first three issues published in 2018 already provided a glimpse of our intended broad topical spectrum, with Reviews on continuous-variable quantum key distribution,3 non-equilibrium Bose–Einstein-like condensation4 and integrated quantum photonics based on diamond,5 accompanied by original research contributions as Communications or Full Papers. Now, what do we have in store for the New Year: The present issue features, for example, a Review on topological insulators and semimetals for magnetoresistive sensors6 and a Progress Report on the Dicke model being relevant for quantum optics.7 Later during 2019, we also plan to present two special issues on the topics of Quantum Machine Learning and Photonic Quantum Technologies that will aim to provide a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in these respective fields. Most importantly, please be reminded that the journal is open for original research submissions at www.editorialmanager.com/advquantumtech as well as your proposals for review-type contributions that you may send to advquantumtech@wiley.com at any time. We will also use forthcoming conference opportunities such as the APS March Meeting in Boston, several DPG (German Physical Society) meetings as well as various events in Asia to meet with you personally to get to know your research, to invite you to submit as well to learn more about the publication needs of the quantum community. Feel free to get in touch with us through any physical or virtual channel! For those of you who might be new to our journals: Online submission and online publication (no print) in QUTE are completely cost-free, and the journal is also free-to-read for anybody during the whole year. If you would like to make use of open-access options, Wiley OnlineOpen with various open access licenses is available through an increasing number of national, consortial or funder agreements (such as the ‘DEAL’ soon to be implemented in Germany8) or via payment of the respective article publication charge by your institution or funder. Details are provided in the ‘Contribute’ section of our homepage. You may also post a preprint of your manuscript to arXiv.org or similar servers, or to a scientific collaboration network that is compliant with the STM sharing principles.9 When doing so, please make sure that the journal reference is always up to date, including the DOI and/or URL of your journal-published article. More information on general article sharing principles is available on howcanishareit.com. These should help you to achieve maximum visibility both of your newest publication and of our young journal, as will news stories on selected top content on our news portal advancedsciencenews.com. We look forward to exciting quantum times and to reading (or hearing) from you! The Editorial Team of Advanced Quantum Technologies
2019 promises to be a crucial year for the emerging field of quantum technologies. On the funding side, the Quantum Technologies Flagship of the European Union has kicked off with the first 20 projects,1 and the total funding is expected to reach €1bn over the coming decade.2 Other world regions are not being left behind: In the US, Congress has recently passed the National Quantum Initiative Act, likewise a 10-year program with a budget of 1.3bn. This bold concept is accompanied by further support from government agencies such as the DOE and NSF. Research activities are being intensified not only in academia and research laboratories but also in the R&D centers of giant corporations such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and in many other companies. A key goal is to couple ever more qubits and to demonstrate a working quantum computer that will be able to achieve the ‘holy grail’ of quantum supremacy in computational power – if not yet today or tomorrow, then certainly in the years to come. Last but not least, the Chinese government has announced the provision of no less than 10bn to create a National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences. China has already taken crucial steps in creating a quantum network, including satellite-based communication. So, clearly the world is not short of opportunities in pursuing new and exciting quantum science, as well as its applications. On the other hand, it is more than obvious that there are still many fundamental scientific questions to be solved, not to speak of the development of real technologies that are still in their infancy to be implemented on a broader scale. Our journal Advanced Quantum Technologies (QUTE) (www.advquantumtech.com), a young member of the renowned Advanced journal family published by Wiley-VCH, aims to provide a peer-reviewed high quality forum for these topics, ranging from the theoretical basics to future device applications. Key areas include quantum-based communication, computation, control, engineering, information, metrology, optics, sensing and simulation, as well as adjacent areas such as nanophotonics, quasiparticle excitations, topological materials, superconductors, micro- and nano-electromechanical systems, ultracold atoms and others. The first three issues published in 2018 already provided a glimpse of our intended broad topical spectrum, with Reviews on continuous-variable quantum key distribution,3 non-equilibrium Bose–Einstein-like condensation4 and integrated quantum photonics based on diamond,5 accompanied by original research contributions as Communications or Full Papers. Now, what do we have in store for the New Year: The present issue features, for example, a Review on topological insulators and semimetals for magnetoresistive sensors6 and a Progress Report on the Dicke model being relevant for quantum optics.7 Later during 2019, we also plan to present two special issues on the topics of Quantum Machine Learning and Photonic Quantum Technologies that will aim to provide a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in these respective fields. Most importantly, please be reminded that the journal is open for original research submissions at www.editorialmanager.com/advquantumtech as well as your proposals for review-type contributions that you may send to advquantumtech@wiley.com at any time. We will also use forthcoming conference opportunities such as the APS March Meeting in Boston, several DPG (German Physical Society) meetings as well as various events in Asia to meet with you personally to get to know your research, to invite you to submit as well to learn more about the publication needs of the quantum community. Feel free to get in touch with us through any physical or virtual channel! For those of you who might be new to our journals: Online submission and online publication (no print) in QUTE are completely cost-free, and the journal is also free-to-read for anybody during the whole year. If you would like to make use of open-access options, Wiley OnlineOpen with various open access licenses is available through an increasing number of national, consortial or funder agreements (such as the ‘DEAL’ soon to be implemented in Germany8) or via payment of the respective article publication charge by your institution or funder. Details are provided in the ‘Contribute’ section of our homepage. You may also post a preprint of your manuscript to arXiv.org or similar servers, or to a scientific collaboration network that is compliant with the STM sharing principles.9 When doing so, please make sure that the journal reference is always up to date, including the DOI and/or URL of your journal-published article. More information on general article sharing principles is available on howcanishareit.com. These should help you to achieve maximum visibility both of your newest publication and of our young journal, as will news stories on selected top content on our news portal advancedsciencenews.com. We look forward to exciting quantum times and to reading (or hearing) from you! The Editorial Team of Advanced Quantum Technologies
Dear Reader, Since the launch of our journal Advanced Quantum Technologies (QUTE for short) in 2018, we have been witnessing plenty of very promising research initiatives and activities in the diverse fields of quantum science, quantum materials, and quantum technologies. Key questions like “Where is quantum technology taking us? What are challenges and perspectives?” led our Editorial Advisor Rainer Blatt to edit a special issue Advancing Quantum Technologies – Chances and Challenges that we published in November 2020 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/25119044/2020/3/11). It broadly showcases how to master quantum phenomena for communication, metrology, sensing, simulation, and computation purposes. In a related virtual mini-symposium Rainer Blatt invited the authors Christoph Becher, Dagmar Bruss, Klemens Hammerer, Dieter Meschede, Christian Ospelkaus, and Robert Raussendorf to share their visions of the quantum future, which culminated in a vivid discussion (https://www.workcast.com/register?cpak=6284277449925096). Yet another recent quantum science webinar targeting a large Chinese audience featured our authors Tongcang Li and Yongjian Han who gave talks on quantum simulation in optical systems and quantum spin optomechanics, respectively. Further activities are being planned for 2021 in order to stay in close contact with the quantum community even during the pandemic. Earlier in 2020 Mohamed Benyoucef, Anthony Bennett, Stephan Götzinger, and Chaoyang Lu threw the spotlight on Photonic Quantum Technologies by editing a special issue (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/25119044/2020/3/2). The topics addressed include hybrid integration of single-photon emitters, cavity QED and light–matter interactions at the nanoscale, on-chip integration of entangled photon sources, and incorporating color centers into nanophotonic structures. Fabrication of suspended converters, single-photon emission at the telecom wavelength, molecule-based single-photon sources, quantum emitter–plasmonic cavity coupling, vertically coupled quantum dot systems, and optomechanical coupling are also discussed. We are happy to announce that our young and growing journal is being indexed in Web of Science. We are confident that the enhanced visibility of QUTE will trigger increasing submission numbers and a growing impact on the thriving field of quantum science and technology. Table 1 lists the presently most cited articles, exemplifying the broad spectrum of review-type and original research content contributed by authors from all over the world. Wiley has a number of agreements in place with institutions and funders to help authors publish open access and ensure compliance with open access policies. Your institution may be able to help with open access Article Publication Charges (APCs) that may be covered in full or part for affiliated authors publishing in Wiley fully open access journals or in a subscription journal through OnlineOpen. Find out if your institution or funder will cover your open access APCs and make your article open access: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-access/affiliation-policies-payments/institutional-funder-payments.html There are also several national deals where authors from an institution affiliated with an open access deal may publish primary research and review articles open access at no charge to the author. This applies to, e.g., Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and the United Kingdom. For more information and to view eligibility criteria: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-access/affiliation-policies-payments/index.html Nonetheless, QUTE is a hybrid journal, i.e., also publishing subscription content following the Copyright Transfer Agreement, which is free of charge to authors who do not possess open access publication funds. To make the licensing process easier, a new tool was rolled out prompting all license signing (Copyright Transfer Agreements or Creative Commons licenses) to the Author Services Platform. Corresponding authors, especially those who are eligible for OnlineOpen, can choose the most suitable publication conditions for their articles in QUTE. We would like to sincerely thank our authors, reviewers, Advisory Board members, and readers, for entrusting our journal with their research and expertise. We wish you all the best, and a happy and healthy new year. Kind regards, QUTE editorial team P.S. The editorial team is happy to receive overview articles or any kind of proposals, as well as your input and comments at advquantumtech@wiley.com
Over the past two years, a comprehensive strategy for quantum technology in Europe has been created by the joint effort of academia and the business sector with community support from all over the continent.By building on that, Europe is making the next big leap with the first wave of pioneering projects launched in October 2018, sending a clear global signal that we will do our very best to retain the historic lead in quantum sciences.Building on Europe's rich scientific heritage and the strong quantum community, the Quantum Technology Flagship was launched by the European Commission with a €1 billion budget.The ambitious initiative will support over 5,000 of Europe's leading researchers over the next ten years.As announced during the official kick-off in October 2018, 20 projects worth €132 million will be funded in the initial 3-year phase via the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme.A solid indicator of success is the staggering number of proposals submitted for the first Flagship call: 140 consortia have requested almost five times the available budget.Over the decade-long course of the Flagship, over 150 projects are expected to be realised.The total €1 billion funding will foster the entire quantum value chain from basic research to industrialisation, thus bringing together researchers and the business sector.Four research and innovation domains will simultaneously be the focus of the European efforts: Communication, Computation, Simulation, as well as Sensing and Metrology represent the major applied areas in the field, which will also be advanced by breakthrough discoveries in the fifth, underlying domain of Basic Science.The Communication domain will foster the development of cheap, compact, faster and more secure random number generators, as well as components and systems for continuous variable quantum communication.Parallel to these, a blueprint for the pan-European Quantum Internet shall be created by developing all essential subsystems and giving the first experimental demonstration.Within Computing, two projects aim to develop quantum computers that are competitive with today's state-of-the-art supercomputers, either by realising a fully-automated ion-trap quantum computer or by building a machine with up to 100 superconducting qubits.The Simulation domain will push the already well-advanced neutral atom and ion-based quantum simulation platforms and address quantum annealing or optimization problems through full programmability.Parallel to that a quantum simulator platform made of ultracold atoms will be created, engineering a new generation of quantum cascade laser frequency combs characterized by non-classical emission and entanglement among the comb nodes.The Sensing domain will see the development of novel and compact atomic clocks, as well as the exploitation of atom-like defects in diamond to develop a variety of sensors and in magnetic resonance imaging to improve the detection of cardiovascular diseases.Furthermore, it will support combining state-of-the-art quantum sensor physics with MEMS atomic vapor cells, allowing for high-volume, high-reliability, low-cost deployment.Finally, within the domain of Basic Science, seven projects will investigate a variety of topics and technologies, with a focus on microfabricated devices and photonic systems.Enhancing capabilities in quantum technologies will help create a lucrative knowledge-based industry, leading to long-term economic, scientific and societal benefits, while delivering novel ideas, tools, components, materials, methods and processes.By funding ground-breaking projects, the Flagship will enable "quantum leaps" in technology development over the next decade, which in turn will lead to establishing markets within and wealth creation even beyond the European quantum ecosystem.Currently Europe is still at the leading edge of quantum technologies worldwide.However, this might rapidly change, as the demand for technology and talent is increasing at an unprecedented pace around the globe due to the promising future of quantum applications.Governments of industry powerhouse nations like the USA or China, as well as corporations such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent are already investing substantial amounts to unleash quantum technologies' potential.
The development of quantum mechanics and quantum physics in general is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Initially, quantum physicists focused on mathematically describing and understanding the laws of a micro-world, comprised of atoms, molecules and photons. Nuclei and sub-atomic particles were discovered, particle physics evolved, and complex quantum systems in chemistry and solid-state physics are now described in terms of quantum physics. Within a century, quantum physics became the framework, which allows us to describe and predict, albeit with probabilities, the behavior of the microscopic world as we know it. The powerful quantum framework led to revolutionary technical advances for a century, such as semiconductor technology and the entire electronics industry based on it, enabling computers and the information age. The development of lasers found applications in many areas of our current technologies; we use them for printers, storing and retrieving information using CDs, industrial welding, medical surgery, and for range finding and communication purposes. Medical imaging using MRI is now a routine instrument, as are precision measurements using tunneling and atomic force microscopes. Superconducting technologies are used for high magnetic fields and many more current technologies are based on and enabled by the laws of quantum physics. While the framework of quantum physics has thus proven to be extremely successful and powerful, throughout the last century there were many conceptual, and to some extent philosophical, discussions on our understanding of quantum physics. As early as the 1930s, Einstein and Schrödinger realized that quantum physics allows for some peculiar states, which Schrödinger called “entangled”, which have a non-local character and thus do find an easy interpretation in our classical world. It took a few more decades until John Bell conceived a way to quantify such states, which thus became amenable to measurements. Only in the eighties and nineties of the last century did the generation of entangled states, their characterization and their subsequent application become feasible and accessible in laboratories. Early on, Bell states were proposed for applications in quantum communication, employing protocols based on teleportation. Soon, entanglement was recognized to be useful also for sensing, for precision measurements and eventually for quantum information processing. Starting with the early concept of a trapped-ion quantum computer introduced by Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller in 1995, many other platforms were proposed for quantum information processing, based on superconducting quantum bits, photonic processes, engineered quantum dots and many more. The first decade of the 21st century saw an explosive development of quantum information physics, which is by now a mature field and increasingly focuses on applications. Worldwide efforts are ongoing to realize quantum networks for secure communication and to implement quantum computers. Enhanced sensing has been demonstrated using advanced quantum states, and quantum simulators have been developed, already tackling problems that are hard to compute with classical computers. While architectures for full-fledged quantum computers are already available, the realization of such computers still requires the routine implementation of error correction, which is not yet available, for full scalability. Currently, noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors are already used for computations and are even accessible via cloud services. Since about 2000, quantum technologies have been developed for many platforms with the aim to surpass the capablities of their classical counterparts. Many such devices now make use of entangled states, which are seen as the new resource for advanced quantum technologies. For this, describing, understanding and generally mastering the generation and manipulation of entanglement is a key element. Moreover, both hardware and software technologies have to be improved in order to better control quantum devices. Mastering quantum phenomena for communication, metrology, simulation and computation purposes is currently one of the hottest topics in science since the wide applicability of quantum technologies will revolutionize these fields. The development of advanced quantum technologies is thus seen worldwide as a strategic area for generating technical knowledge and industrial evolution. This special issue intends to showcase the breadth and impact of the ongoing research in advancing quantum technologies. We have invited a selection of renowned scientists to present their work, and we are confident that this issue will find a broad readership and attract much interest within the scientific community.
Advanced Quantum Technologies (QUTE) as a part of the prestigious Advanced journal portfolio, is a high-impact international journal disseminating the best peer-reviewed research in quantum science and technologies, including but not limited to quantum optics, quantum computing, quantum information, topological materials, superconductors, nanophotonics, quantum metrology, and micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. QUTE published 513 articles, including 418 Research Articles and 95 Reviews from established and emerging researchers since launched in late 2018 (according to Web of Science, December 03, 2023). Our listing of the most accessed articles can be found here, which illustrates the broad range of topics that have been covered by this young and multidisciplinary journal already. Moreover, the QUTE cover gallery provides a colorful graphical showcase of excellent research from the past 5 years. In this way, the journal is an important support for researchers to fulfill their mission and maximize their scientific discoveries. We would like to point you to some of the recently published highlight articles on various relevant topics, such as an inter-European quantum network (DOI 10.1002/qute.202200061), atom–photon hybrid systems (DOI 10.1002/qute.202300090), linear optical universal quantum gates (DOI 10.1002/qute.202300009), and quantum materials (DOI 10.1002/qute.202200131). Special issues on Quantum Sensing, guest-edited by Tongcang Li (Purdue University), Ren-bao Liu (Chinese University of Hong Kong), and Chong Zu (Washington University in St. Louis); Quantum Machine Learning, guest-edited by Lucas Lamata (Universidad de Sevilla) and José D. Martín-Guerrero (Universitat de València); and Photonic Quantum Technologies, guest-edited by Mohamed Benyoucef (QUTE Editorial Advisory Board, University of Kassel), are soon to follow. As a recent addition to our Editorial Advisory Board, we welcome Xinhua Peng of the University of Science and Technology of China and Kaiyou Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Xinhua Peng's research interest is quantum computation, quantum simulation, and quantum control using magnetic resonance technology, and Prof. Kaiyou Wang's skills are in spintronics and antiferromagnetism. The entire Advisory Board representing a wide range of research topics is listed here. Advanced Quantum Technologies offers authors the option to publish their articles Open Access, which means the articles are immediately free to read, download, and share. If you get ready to submit, please don't forget to ensure funder compliance, check eligibility for funding, and learn more about open access, which can help you compare the open-access policies of your funder or institution with the options available at Advanced Quantum Technologies and Wiley. Please also check and read about our transformative, institutional, and funder agreements available in many world regions, and discover the different options for publishing open access, copyright licenses (the alternative way to publish cost-free in QUTE), and more. We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading the articles in this scientific journal and look forward to your submissions for publication in Advanced Quantum Technologies. The Editorial Team of Advanced Quantum Technologies
Quantum computation is not an imminent achievement . We will not wake up tomorrow and find quantum computers on our desks. At the time of this writing, IBM has just unveiled the Condor – a chip containing 1,121 superconducting qubits. This number will likely increase (perhaps spectacularly) in the near future. However, the qubits have a relatively large error rate and, in the absence of a breakthrough advance that significantly lowers this rate, one would need hundreds of physical qubits to realize an error-corrected logical qubit. Predicting how long it will take to achieve the controlled manipulation of thousands of (logical) qubits (i.e., a number of qubits consistent with the “useful” implementation of known quantum algorithms) is probably not a rational undertaking, at least for a scientist. The most pessimistic experts regard the lively research activity in quantum computation as a waste of time and resources. But the pervading mood in this field is one of cautious optimism, particularly considering the possibility of achieving useful tasks (e.g., simulating quantum systems) with a sufficiently large number of “imperfect” qubits. Expediency may be responsible for some of this optimism; a good feeling about the prospects for quantum computation certainly helps when it comes to publishing papers and getting funded. Ultimately, however, the responsibility for the wise distribution of resources rests with the funding agencies; scientists, on the other hand, are called to explore every aspect of real and possible worlds that looks fascinating and worthy of their curiosity. From this perspective, quantum computation (defined broadly) offers plenty of opportunities for producing “good science.” The problems brought to the fore by the development of this field range from basic questions regarding the foundations of quantum mechanics and unsolved problems in computational complexity, to the investigation of new phases of matter (e.g., topological quantum phases), the quest for “complete” control over quantum systems, and the critical need for significant advances in materials science and device fabrication (e.g., engineering nanoscale heterostructures with atomic precision). Progress in these areas will naturally open new possibilities for interesting applications. Precisely identifying these applications is premature, but building a (general purpose) quantum computer will not necessarily be among the first of them.
As the first applications leap out of research laboratories toward commercialization, the global race for dominance in the maturing field of quantum technologies is becoming ever fiercer. To retain its historical lead and kick-start a continent-wide quantum-driven industry and accelerate market take-up, Europe has launched the Quantum Flagship, an ambitious €1 billion, 10 year endeavor. This article provides an overview of the underlying considerations and the current state of the initiative. Furthermore, it briefly presents the 20 projects selected to be at the core of the ramp-up phase of the initiative, which will address core applications of quantum technologies such as communications, computing, simulation, as well as sensing and metrology, all of which are supported by basic science. Finally, we present the broader ecosystem of European funding instruments and institutions which aim to create the next generation of disruptive technologies within quantum sciences, placing Europe as a worldwide knowledge-based industrial and technological leader in this innovative field.