Exciting times in quantum technologiesIndustry and academia stand side-by-side, like Prof Immanuel Bloch and Toptica's Thomas Renner only to research and development but also to sales, applications, product management and production.When implementing laser systems and other photonic solutions, we get stimuli from research, which benefits us in all other user industries.This is because the requirement for precision and stability is extremely high in science.If you succeed here from a technological aspect, you will benefit from this in all other areas.Now quantum technology is ready to make the leap from basic research to industrial application.As a result, there are new challenges with the design and size of the systems, price levels and usability, and it is beneficial for us that we have been delivering about half of our lasers to industrial customers for many years.
Exciting times in quantum technologiesIndustry and academia stand side-by-side, like Prof Immanuel Bloch and Toptica's Thomas Renner only to research and development but also to sales, applications, product management and production.When implementing laser systems and other photonic solutions, we get stimuli from research, which benefits us in all other user industries.This is because the requirement for precision and stability is extremely high in science.If you succeed here from a technological aspect, you will benefit from this in all other areas.Now quantum technology is ready to make the leap from basic research to industrial application.As a result, there are new challenges with the design and size of the systems, price levels and usability, and it is beneficial for us that we have been delivering about half of our lasers to industrial customers for many years.
The next generation of quantum technologies holds immense potential for innovation in our economy, society as well as many industries and is highly important for Germany and Europe. Entirely new and unexplored solutions could unfold for improving efficiency, sustainability, security, telecommunication, computation and medicine, for example. Fraunhofer is an essential partner of the European industry and, at the same time, acts as an integrator and multiplier of disruptive technology leaps. As such, we are committed to the efficient and sustainable transfer of scientific knowledge into applications for the benefit of society - which is why new quantum technologies represent an important research field in our portfolio. In this book, Fraunhofer presents its knowledge and experience on quantum technology innovations in the areas of sensing, imaging, communication and computing, as well as their scientific foundations and applications.
Photonics has become a key enabling technology across a wide range of industrial optical systems. Throughout my professional career, I have observed its application in diverse fields, including ophthalmology, industrial metrology, and space-based optical instrumentation. This exposure spans a broad spectrum of technical developments, from startup-driven, hand-held devices to complex, multi-million-euro instruments developed over many years. These experiences have provided insight into the factors that determine whether technical systems ultimately succeed or fail, highlighting the critical role of robust photonic design and system-level engineering. Following a transition from industry back to academia, my objective is to transfer an engineering-oriented perspective into applied academic research. In particular, the focus is on identifying optical architectures that exhibit inherent robustness with respect to environmental disturbances and manufacturing imperfections, and on systematically leveraging tolerance analysis as an integral element of the optical design process rather than as a final validation step. This contribution further discusses how these industrial design principles are incorporated into ongoing research activities in the field of quantum technologies at the university of applied sciences Nuremberg, Germany. Emphasis is placed on the application of robust optical design methodologies to quantum photonic systems, thereby reinforcing the connection between industrial system engineering and applied academic research in photonics and quantum optics.
Modern industrial societies rely heavily on electric power systems, which serve as their backbone. Companies in the energy industry face significant challenges due to the unprecedented technological innovation and rapid evolution of systems, processes, and technology required for the development and global delivery of energy. Quantum technologies can offer a solution to many of these problems. Quantum communication, simulation, computing, and sensing have advanced beyond the confines of laboratories and are gradually being adopted by end-users. The article links two worlds: a technological summary of research needs and activities to support the operation and management of energy systems until 2050, and the latest findings from the world of quantum technologies.
The exciting possibilities in the field of new quantum technologies extend far beyond the well-reported application of quantum computing. Precision timing, gravity sensors and imagers, cryptography, navigation, metrology, energy harvesting and recovery, biomedical sensors and imagers, and real-time optimisers all indicate the potential for quantum technologies to provide the basis of a technological revolution. From the field of Systems Engineering emerges a focused strategy for the development cycle, enabling the existence of hugely complex products. It is through the adoption of systems thinking that the semiconductor industry has achieved massive industrial and economic impact. Quantum technologies rely on delicate, non-local and/or entangled degrees of freedom - leading to great potential, but also posing new challenges to the development of products and industries. We discuss some of the challenges and opportunities regarding the implementation of Systems Engineering and systems thinking into the quantum technologies space.
This talk will discuss how the Quantum “industry” might develop based on fifty-some years of laser industry history. Doing so is not easy given we have to parse through truth and over-exuberant truth on quantum computing. Initial growth of the laser industry came from the development of new lasers and instruments to enable RD. Growth accelerated as real applications were adopted. Funding for quantum technology development will come from governments and big-tech. There will be ample startup companies to supply tools but only a few will succeed. The likelihood is there will be more mergers and tech transfer.
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