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Quantum technology challenges for the 21st century
Satellite meeting organised by Professor Sir Peter Knight FRS, Professor Ian Walmsley FRS, Professor Gerard Milburn, Dr Jonathan Pritchard, Dr Stephen Till.
The satellite meeting has brought together academic and industry leaders in quantum physics and engineering, and focused on the next steps required to facilitate the translation of novel quantum physics for timing, sensing, communications, computing and simulation and facilitate into systems for real world applications.
Speaker biographies, abstracts, and recorded audio of the presentations is available below.
Enquiries: contact the events team.
Schedule
Chair
Professor Miles Padgett FRS, University of Glasgow, UK
Professor Miles Padgett FRS, University of Glasgow, UK
Miles Padgett holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He leads QuantIC, a quantum imaging centre, and one of four Quantum Technology hubs in the UK. In 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and in 2014 a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK's National Academy. In 2009, with Les Allen, he won the Institute of Physics Young Medal, in 2014 the RSE Kelvin Medal and in 2015 the Science of Light Prize from the European Physical Society.
| 09:00 - 09:30 |
Compressive quantum sensing
Compressive sensing utilises sparsity to realise efficient image reconstruction. It is a valuable processing technique when cost, power, technology or computational overhead are limited or high. In the quantum domain technology usually limits efficient acquisition of weak or fragile signals. I will discuss the basics of information theory, compression, and compressive sensing. I will then discuss our recent work in compressive sensing. The topics of discussion include low-flux laser Radar, photonic phase transitions, high resolution biphoton ghost imaging, Ghost object tracking, 3D object tracking and high dimensional entanglement characterisation. I will touch lightly on our current work of rapid wavefunction reconstruction and wavefront sensing. As an example, we were able to efficiently and rapidly reconstruct high dimensional joint probability functions of biphotons in momentum and position. With conventional raster scanning this process would take approximately a year, but using double-pixel compressive sensing, the pictures were acquired in a few hours with modest flux. 
Professor John Howell, University of Rochester, USA
Professor John Howell, University of Rochester, USAProfessor Howell received his B.S. in Physics (1995) with a minor in Mathematics from Utah State University, and his M.S. and PhD in Physics (2000) from Pennsylvania State University. He then took a postdoctoral research position at the Centre for Quantum Computation at the University of Oxford. Professor Howell joined the University of Rochester in 2002, as Assistant Professor of Physics. Howell received a Research Innovation Award from the Research Corporation in 2004, a Presidential PECASE Award in 2005, and the Adolph Lomb Medal from the Optical Society of America in 2006 "For innovative contributions in quantum optics, particularly aspects of quantum cloning, violations of Bell's inequalities and maximal photonic entanglement." He was made Professor of Physics in 2011. He is an OSA Fellow and the Vice President for Optical Society to the International Commission for Optics. |
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| 09:30 - 10:00 |
Quantum secure communication technologies
The Quantum Communications Hub is part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, focused on secure communications. I will introduce this Hub and give an overview of the technologies we are pursuing: short-range, free-space consumer QKD; chip-scale QKD modules; the UK Quantum Network (UKQN); next generation quantum communications. I'll also introduce an addition to the UKQN which is just underway. I will briefly outline our technology goals for the Hub. 
Professor Timothy Spiller, University of York, UK
Professor Timothy Spiller, University of York, UKProfessor Tim Spiller moved to York in 2014 as founding Director of the York Centre for Quantum Technologies and he is now also Director of the UK Quantum Communications Hub. Prior to this he was at the University of Leeds in the roles of Head of the Quantum Information Group and Director of Research for the School of Physics and Astronomy. Prior to 2009 Spiller was Director of Quantum Information Processing (QIP) Research at HP Labs Bristol – an activity that he established in 1995 – and a Hewlett-Packard Distinguished Scientist. He has spent 30 years researching quantum theory, superconducting systems and quantum hardware and technologies. He led HP’s strategy on the commercialisation of QIP research, is an inventor on 25 patents linked to quantum technologies and applications, and was additionally a consultant inside HP on networking, communications and nanotechnology. |
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| 10:00 - 10:30 |
Open challenges for optical quantum technologies
Great strides are being made in the development of quantum optical technologies. Philosophical questions surrounding entanglement have inspired recent loophole free experiments to push the boundaries of collection efficiency and of quantum memory. The technological advances allow us to begin developing novel applications in device independent quantum communications and in sub-shot noise experiments. Similarly integrated quantum photonics has allowed dramatic scaling down of dimensions and increased complexity in circuits for quantum information processing. However ultimate scalability and performance will require deterministic sources and entanglement generation (or gates) which is difficult to engineer in conventional non-linear media but potentially solved using nano-photonic systems coupled to solid state spins. 
Professor John Rarity FRS, University of Bristol, UK
Professor John Rarity FRS, University of Bristol, UKProfessor John Rarity FRS is head of Quantum Engineering Technology Labs (Physics and E&EE) and Photonics Group (E&EE) at the University of Bristol (since 2003). He is an international expert on quantum optics, communications and sensing exploiting single photons and entanglement. He pioneered early experiments in path entanglement, quantum key distribution and quantum metrology. Current research focusses on non-linear waveguide sources of pair photons, integrated quantum photonics, sub-shot noise imaging schemes, long wavelength quantum sensing, free space quantum communications, multi-photon entanglement and nanocavities for spin photon interfaces. |
Chair
Dr Viv Kendon, University of Durham, UK
Dr Viv Kendon, University of Durham, UK
Dr Viv Kendon joined the Durham Quantum Light and Matter research section (formerly Atmol), and the Joint Quantum Centre (JQC) Durham-Newcastle, in August 2014, as an EPSRC established career fellow on Hybrid Quantum and Classical Computation. Prior to Durham, she was part of the Quantum Information Group at the University of Leeds, where she held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship from 2004 to 2012. Dr Kendon was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and initially researched in the area of Soft Condensed Matter, before switching to quantum information theory via postdoctoral positions held at the University of Strathclyde and Imperial College. Previous to her research career, Dr Kendon was active for over 10 years in global electronic networking and computer support in the voluntary sector. Her current main research interest is quantum computing, including interfacing quantum and classical computational architectures.
| 11:00 - 11:30 |
Analogue quantum simulators: progress and applications
Quantum simulators seek to allow fundamental insight into the behaviour of complex quantum systems by modelling (or emulating) behaviour of physical systems that cannot be simulated on a classical computer. There has been a lot of progress in recent years in this area across a range of physical systems, including ultracold atomic gases, trapped ions, photons, and more recently also solid state devices. Ultracold atoms, in particular, offer possibilities to perform analogue quantum simulation (or quantum emulation) of lattice and spin models for strongly interacting systems that are usually encountered in solid-state physics. This involves engineering these models directly in an environment where we have microscopic first-principles control over their parameters. Such devices have the potential to act as a quantum mechanical equivalent of wind tunnels for testing ideas in many-body quantum physics, and as experimental challenges are systematically overcome, this has wide ranging potential to contribute to a lot of areas of physics - and science more generally. These areas range from a next generations of quantum technologies for measurement and sensing to potential new insights into materials science and quantum chemistry. I will give an overview of the recent progress in theory and experiment, including the realisation of new ways to measure previously inaccessible quantities such as many-body entanglement, and new means to control, calibrate and verify analogue quantum simulators. 
Professor Andrew Daley, University of Strathclyde, UK
Professor Andrew Daley, University of Strathclyde, UKAndrew Daley is Professor of Theoretical Quantum Optics in the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 2005, and was a senior scientist in Innsbruck and then an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to Scotland in 2013. His research centres on the interface between quantum optics and many-body physics, especially exploring new possibilities to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics with strongly interacting quantum gases of atoms and molecules in optical potentials. He is currently PI of an EPSRC Programme Grant on ‘Designing out of equilibrium many-body quantum systems’. |
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| 11:30 - 12:30 |
The power and practicality of network-paradigm quantum computing
What is the most promising architectural paradigm for a quantum information processor? This question remains open, but I will put the argument for a hybrid matter/light system composed of few-qubit devices interlinked by an optical fabric. After reviewing recent achievements in experiments, theory and applications, I will describe the Q20:20 machine that the Oxford-led National Quantum Hub is building in the UK. The system is 'provably' capable of universal, fault tolerant quantum computing using components already demonstrated, but of course building a full scale machine of that kind would be a massive undertaking. I'll comment on the potential for more immediate impacts as a ‘1st generation’ quantum computer in areas like optimisation, simulation and machine learning. 
Professor Simon Benjamin, University of Oxford
Professor Simon Benjamin, University of OxfordSimon Benjamin is the Professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Oxford, and a Visiting Senior Scientist at SUTD Singapore. He is also an Associate Director of NQIT, the recently created £38m UK National Hub for Networked Quantum Information Technologies (NQIT.org), and the Principle Investigator for Oxford's new QuOpaL project on Quantum Optimisation and Machine Learning (QuOpaL.com). Simon leads a team of theorists who study devices that harness quantum effects in order to outperform conventional systems. A key topic is designing hardware/software that is tolerant of the imperfections which first generation quantum technologies will inevitably have. Simon's team engages with the 200-strong Oxford experimental quantum science community (OxfordQuantum.org), as well various other UK universities and major quantum research centres in Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. Simon is also an advocate of Open Science and a board member for Proceedings of the Royal Society A. |
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| 12:00 - 12:30 |
Thermodynamics at the nanoscale
At the beginning of the industrial revolution thermodynamic laws were formulated to analyse and improve the performance of the newly invented steam engine. These laws have been successfully applied ever since to design a great variety of useful everyday devices, from car engines and fridges to power plants and solar cells. However, the ongoing miniaturisation of many technologies to the nanoscale is expected to soon enter regimes where standard thermodynamic laws do not apply and new theoretical underpinning is required. I will give a brief introduction to quantum thermodynamics - the emerging research field that aims to uncover the thermodynamic laws that govern small ensembles of systems that follow non-equilibrium dynamics and can host quantum properties. As an example of experimental applications, I will describe our recent non-equilibrium temperature experiment with nanospheres that are levitated in air. I will close with an outlook on technological challenges that are likely to require new quantum thermodynamics input to be resolved. 
Dr Janet Anders, University of Exeter, UK
Dr Janet Anders, University of Exeter, UKJanet Anders is the group leader of the Quantum Non-equilibrium Group at the University of Exeter, UK. With a research focus on quantum information theory and quantum thermodynamics, the group’s work includes an analysis of the non-equilibrium dynamics of nanospheres in optical tweezer experiments, a method that allows the measurement of temperature and temperature gradients at the nanoscale. Previous research includes the characterisation of the temperature of Bose gases and crystals below which thermal entanglement occurs, and contributions to measurement-based quantum computing and quantum cryptography. Janet Anders is a previous Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin research fellow and chairs the European COST network ‘Thermodynamics in the quantum regime.’ |
Chair
Dr Stephen Till, DSTL, UK
Dr Stephen Till, DSTL, UK
Stephen Till is a Technical Fellow in the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl Porton Down). He has worked as a theoretician in Dstl and its antecedent agencies, including the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, following post-graduate research into molecular scattering theory. More recently, he has used quantum mechanics to simulate a wide range of solid state and molecular materials. This has led him to understand and design practical electronic and electro-optic devices, including novel laser sources and EO materials for defence applications. A significant part of his work has concerned laser-materials interaction including bio-effects consequent upon retinal exposures to lasers and this underpinned part of the recently revised ANSI Z136.1 laser safety standards. Over the last three years he has been instrumental in establishing the UK National Quantum Technology Programme and the UK MOD quantum technology projects.
| 13:30 - 14:00 |
Microwave and optical clocks for navigation and timing
Modern-day society continues to experience increasing sophistication in the application of quantum technology devices to navigation and timing since the introduction of the caesium atomic clock some 60 years ago. Caesium microwave fountain clocks now realise the SI second at the part in 1016 level within National Measurement Institutes, and cold atom optical clock analogues are already out-performing the fountain clock by 1 – 2 orders of magnitude, thereby offering a route to a redefinition of the second within a decade. Whilst these laboratory-based highest-accuracy clocks offer precision metrology that can contribute to high science and fundamental physics, the spin-out of industrial clock systems has led to increasing applications in timing and navigation with direct bearing on everyday life via satellite navigation, mobile phone synchronisation, energy management and financial trading. Within these sectors, the time and frequency clock capability is generally traded off against devices with much lower size, weight and power (SWaP) specifications, but with the important requirement for robust and resilient operation. Our leading-edge microwave and optical atomic clocks make use of such techniques as laser cooling, quantum state preparation and super-position and quantum jump read-out. I will describe our activities in exporting similar techniques into low-SWaP clock and timing systems that can benefit the wider timing applications. The use of fountain techniques represents a difficulty for small clock systems because of size issues, but the technologies within trapped ion clocks and neutral atoms optical lattice clocks offer viable routes to miniature and compact clocks in both the microwave and optical regions. 
Professor Patrick Gill MBE, National Physical Laboratory, UK
Professor Patrick Gill MBE, National Physical Laboratory, UKPatrick Gill is co-Director of the NPL Quantum Metrology Institute, and leads the NPL Time & Frequency team concerned with leading-edge research into state-of-the art quantum frequency standards and clocks based on laser-cooled atoms and ions and ultra-stable lasers, with application to fundamental science & metrology, space, aerospace, navigation, defence and precision engineering. Patrick joined NPL in 1975 after completing his DPhil at the Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford. He has published 170 scientific papers. He is a visiting professor at Imperial College and at the University of Oxford. He was awarded the I I Rabi Award by the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium in 2007, and the IOP 2008 Young Medal. His team received the 2014 Duke of Edinburgh award from the Royal Institute of Navigation for long term atomic clock development. Patrick was awarded an MBE for services to Science in The Queen's New Year's Honours List 2015. |
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| 14:00 - 14:30 |
Developing an atom accelerometer for navigation
Atom interferometer gravimeters can measure vertical acceleration with very low noise, and excellent absolute accuracy. If the same could be achieved in all three Cartesian directions, one could imagine using this as the basis for an improved inertial navigation system. To realise the benefit of the atom accelerometer, it will also be necessary to have good enough rotation information, and that will require improvements in gyroscopes. Once all this is achieved, variations in the direction and strength of local gravity become a significant source of systematic error. Alternatively, one could consider fine structures in the gravity map as a powerful way to determine position. I will discuss the technical challenges in building a 3-axis atom-interferometer accelerometer and will summarise the status of this in my laboratory. I will consider inertial navigation systems, touching on the role of Schuler oscillations in mitigating the effect of accelerometer bias. Time permitting, I will mention briefly how atom interferometry can be used to detect dark energy. 
Professor Ed Hinds FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Ed Hinds FRS, Imperial College London, UKEd Hinds has a BA and DPhil in Physics, from Oxford. He worked at Columbia (1975-1976), Yale (1976-1995) and University of Sussex (1995-2002) and is now a Royal Society Research Professor at Imperial College London, where he directs the Centre for Cold Matter. Awards include EPSRC Senior Research Fellow (1999), Fellow of the Royal Society (2004), Royal Society Research Professor (2006), IoP Thomson Medal and Prize (2008), Royal Society Rumford Medal (2008), IoP Faraday Medal and Prize (2013). |
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| 14:30 - 15:00 |
Secure signatures - a practical quantum technology
Modern cryptography encompasses much more than encryption of secret messages. Signature schemes are widely used to guarantee that messages cannot be forged or tampered with, for example in e-mail, software updates and electronic commerce. Messages are also transferrable, which distinguishes digital signatures from message authentication. Transferability means that messages can be forwarded; in other words, that a sender is unlikely to be able to make one recipient accept a message which is subsequently rejected by another recipient if the message is forwarded. Similar to public-key encryption, the security of commonly used signature schemes relies on the assumed computational difficulty of problems such as finding discrete logarithms or factoring large primes. With quantum computers, such assumptions would no longer be valid. Partly for this reason, it is desirable to develop signature schemes with unconditional or information-theoretic security. Quantum signature schemes are one possible solution. Similar to quantum key distribution (QKD), their unconditional security relies only on the laws of quantum mechanics. Quantum signatures can be realised with the same system components as QKD, but are so far less investigated. This talk aims to provide an introduction to quantum signatures and to review progress so far. 
Professor Erika Andersson, Heriot-Watt University, UK
Professor Erika Andersson, Heriot-Watt University, UKErika Andersson received her PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2000. She then held a Marie Curie Fellowship and a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. Erika is currently professor of physics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. Most recently, she has driven the development of practical schemes for quantum signatures. Digital signatures are used to guarantee that messages cannot be tampered with, and that messages can be forwarded to another recipient. Unlike commonly used "classical" signature schemes, quantum signatures can be made unconditionally secure, similar to quantum key distribution. The work on quantum signatures is currently part of the UK Quantum Technology Hub in Quantum Communications led by Tim Spiller at York. Erika's research interests also include quantum measurements, quantum information science, and light propagation in non-trivial waveguide lattice geometries, aiming to model interesting phenomena such as topological features and novel localisation effects. |
Chair
Dr Jonathan Pritchard OBE, Dstl, UK
Dr Jonathan Pritchard OBE, Dstl, UK
In 1982, after his physics PhD, Jonathan joined RSRE to develop novel communications systems and signal processing algorithms. In the 1990s he established the ISTAR department, eventually leading a team of 280. In 2003 he became QinetiQ technical director for emerging technologies while developing novel imaging and signal processing systems. In 2006 he took a year out to act as "company doctor", returning a key QinetiQ physics team to profitability. In 2010 he became an independent scientific advisor to MOD and since 2012 has been working for Dstl in emerging technologies. He is co-author of the UK technology landscape document, which was instrumental in initiating the UK national and MOD quantum technology programmes. He is currently helping to run the MOD quantum projects. He was awarded an MOD Individual Merit in 1993, a QinetiQ fellowship in 2000, and an OBE for business and technical innovation in 2003.
| 15:30 - 16:00 |
Quantum metrology gets real
Quantum physics holds the promise of enhanced performance in metrology and sensing by exploiting non-classical phenomena such as multiparticle interference. Specific designs for quantum-enhanced schemes need to take into account noise and imperfections present in real-life implementations. This talk will review selected recent results in realistic quantum metrology, starting from interferometric phase estimation with common impairments, such as photon loss, and ending with general scaling laws implied by the geometry of quantum channels. In many situations, although qualitatively improved asymptotic scaling of ideal noise-free protocols is lost, quantum physics can usefully offer performance beyond the standard shot noise limit. As a concrete example, a comparison of the fundamental quantum interferometry bound with the recently achieved sensitivity of the squeezed-light-enhanced GEO600 gravitational wave detector indicates its nearly optimal operation given the present amount of optical loss. Finally, the potential of mode-engineering techniques exploiting multiple degrees of freedom to alleviate deleterious effects induced for example by residual distinguishability in multiphoton interference is highlighted. 
Professor Konrad Banaszek, University of Warsaw, Poland
Professor Konrad Banaszek, University of Warsaw, PolandKonrad Banaszek is a professor at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. His main research interests lie in the field of emerging quantum technologies, with particular focus on the photonic platform and applications in metrology and communication. After receiving a PhD degree from the University of Warsaw in 2000 he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Rochester and the University of Oxford, followed by a Junior Research Fellowship at St. John's College, Oxford. Formerly a member of the European Physical Society Quantum Electronics and Optics Division Board and an Associate Editor of Optics Express. Currently he assists National Science Centre, a government agency supporting basic research in Poland, with scientific coordination of the QuantERA initiative aiming to establish a Europe-wide funding scheme for research in the area of quantum technologies. |
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| 16:00 - 16:30 |
Engaging with industry – experiences from the QUANTIC Hub
QUANTIC, in common with the other Quantum Hubs, has been operating its partnership funding scheme for over a year. In that time a number of successful partnership projects with industry have been funded and initiatives have been taken with co-funders to create new opportunities for industry and academia alike. At the same time issues have emerged inter alia from the framework contracts under which the Hubs operate specifically in relation to IP ownership. Some of the plans for national management of IP have yet to come to fruition and the internationalisation agenda for the quantum programme has highlighted some conflicts with UK priorities. This talk will talk about the operation of our partnership programme and the issues that have emerged from implementing it. 
Professor Steve Beaumont FREng, University of Glasgow, UK
Professor Steve Beaumont FREng, University of Glasgow, UKSteve Beaumont joined QuantIC as a Director and plays a major part in shaping the overall vision for the Hub. Steve is Vice Principal Emeritus at the University of Glasgow and has a portfolio of responsibilities including academic lead for the Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS); chairing and holding non-executive directorships on the boards of a number of the university’s spinout companies; principal investigator on strategic research grants and leading on projects associated with Glasgow’s campus development. Steve is a member of the Innovation Scotland Forum and is a Chartered Engineer (CEng). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2000, and more recently (July 2007) a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). |
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| 16:30 - 17:00 | Round table discussions |
Chair
Professor Trevor Cross, e2v technologies (UK) ltd, UK
Professor Trevor Cross, e2v technologies (UK) ltd, UK
A graduate of Bath and Lancaster Universities, Trevor has a PhD in compound semiconductors and is an Honorary Professor at Birmingham University. For e2v former roles include Manager of Space Solar Power, Director of Space and Communications products and Technical Director. In his current role includes a focus on group strategy and technology planning, and he leads e2v’s Quantum Technologies programme utilising ultra-cold atom technology for Sensing and Instrumentation. e2v is a founding industrial partner in the Birmingham Quantum Technologies Hub for Sensing and Metrology led by Professor Kai Bongs. External roles have included being a council member of the PPARC; chairing the TSB led Electronics, Sensors and Photonics KTN; membership of the Quantum Technologies National Strategic Advisory Board. He is Chair of the Innovate UK’s Special Interest Group in Quantum Technologies. He is a Fellow and a council member of the Institute of Physics.
| 09:00 - 09:20 |
Challenges in engineering platform technologies for quantum technology
The dimensions required for many quantum devices has to be at the nanoscale to enable quantum effects to be engineered. At these length scales surfaces dominate and reproducible nanofabrication is a serious challenge.
Professor Douglas Paul, University of Glasgow, UK
Professor Douglas Paul, University of Glasgow, UKDouglas Paul has an EPSRC Quantum Technology Fellowship and for the last 5 years has been Director of the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre at the University of Glasgow. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was awarded the Institute of Physics President’s Medal in 2014. He is part of the UK Quantum Technology Hub on Quantum Enhanced Imaging and the UK Quantum Technology Hub on Sensors and Metrology. His work includes miniaturising the lasers and optical control for cold atom systems including atomic clocks, developing single photon detectors on a silicon platform, engineering MEMS based gravimeters with squeezed light and developing miniature current standards using a silicon nanowire technology that also has potential applications for QIP. |
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| 09:20 - 09:40 |
Laser technology for emerging quantum technology application and instruments
Many emerging themes of quantum technology including quantum sensing, quantum imaging, quantum communications, quantum computing and quantum time-keeping and navigation have specific and precise laser source requirements. In this talk we examine the laser requirements both in terms of specific technical requirements and form factor and usability requirements. We review wavelength accessibility, tuneability and precision control, linewidth requirements, noise considerations and phase-locking of multiple sources alongside a broader description of emerging themes for miniaturisation of lasers for quantum applications. Precision solid-state lasers based on Ti:Sapphire and Optically-Pumped Semiconductors (OPS) or Vecsels are described along with techniques to achieve tuneability, linewidth and noise control that results in the critical parameters required for demanding quantum applications. Wavelength extension achieving agility of tuning across the spectrum from the deep UV to mid-IR will also be discussed. Case studies of key results and quantum developments enabled by novel laser technology and our own integration of novel laser sources into quantum subsystems and systems will be reviewed. Current progress on optical and cold atom/ion system miniaturisation and ruggedisation and development of IP-enabled digital control systems to integrate quantum systems will be reported. The roadmap for future laser requirements and developments will be considered. The evolution of the first generation of quantum instruments is defining requirements for component device and sub-system miniaturisation and systems-level complex control. Finally a brief review of the emergence of a Quantum Technologies industry and the UK role in this globally emerging market will be analysed. 
Dr Graeme Malcolm, Chief Executive, M Squared
Dr Graeme Malcolm, Chief Executive, M SquaredGraeme Malcolm has been a pioneer of growth technology companies in Scotland over the last 22 years. In 1992 he co-founded Microlase Optical Systems Ltd, which rapidly became one of Scotland’s most successful optoelectronics companies and was sold to a major US corporation. He has developed a number of important technologies across many end-use market sectors and has built strong collaborative alliances within the commercial sector and with several of Scotland’s Universities. Currently Graeme is Chief Executive and co-founder at M-Squared Lasers, a high growth company developing new laser technologies across a wide range of sectors including frontier science, defence and security, oil and gas and food and drink. Graeme is a visiting Professor at the Institute of Photonics of the University of Strathclyde and a Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland. He also sits on the advisory board of the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics. |
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| 09:40 - 10:00 |
Enabling technologies for ultra-cold quantum technology
Ultra-cold matter, in the form of laser-cooled atoms and ions, holds a unique and fertile role in quantum technology with applications from gravitational sensors to quantum simulation. This is due to over three decades of development into producing extremely pure quantum states with highly sophisticated control techniques. Theoretical application of ultra-cold matter are far ahead of experimental capabilities because the apparatus is complex, labour intensive to build and operate, and sensitive to noise and instabilities - even within a laboratory environment. These properties throttle the speed in which ultra-cold quantum physics progresses, but also shackles it to the laboratory and is a major hurdle to industrial appropriation. Research at the University of Southampton aims to overturn this trend by exploring materials and methods to miniaturise, simplify and economically mass-produce ultra-cold apparatus, specifically the magneto-optical trap which is at the heart of all cold atomic systems. I will discuss our progress into developing ground-breaking micro-litre, and passive, ultrahigh vacuum cells using silicon wafer microfabrication techniques. These methods can also be applied to produce chip-scale vapour cells, as well as atom and ion traps. We are also developing hermetic electrical feedthroughs to supply ‘atom-chips’ and in-vacua electronics with power and also provide integrated viewports. Together with compact stabilised lasers and monolithic optics being developed by the Quantum Technology Hubs, this technology will move toward our ultimate goal of commercial matchbox-sized atomic sensor and clock systems.
Dr Matt Himsworth, University of Southampton, UK
Dr Matt Himsworth, University of Southampton, UKMatt Himsworth gained his PhD from the University of Southampton in 2009 for developing novel coherent techniques for manipulating and cooling ultra-cold rubidium using atom interferometry. He moved to Oxford University in 2010 to work in Axel Kuhn's atom-photon interface group developing cavity-QED single photon sources, arbitrary-patterned dipole traps, and EIT photon storage. He won a prestigious RAEng/EPSRC research fellowship in 2010 and formed his own research team back in Southampton in 2011 developing enabling technologies for atomic physics. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Southampton and is part of the Birmingham-led Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology, leading the vacuum package workgroup. |
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| 10:00 - 11:00 |
Integrated quantum photonics
Photonics is a promising approach to realising quantum information technologies, where entangled states of light are generated and manipulated to realise fundamentally new modes of computation, simulation and communication, as well as enhanced measurements and sensing. Historically bulk optical elements on large optical tables have been the means by which to realise proof-of-principle demonstrators in quantum physics. More recently, integrated quantum photonics has enabled a step change in this technology by utilising state-of-the-art photonic engineering approach to deliver complex and compact quantum circuits. In this talk, I will give an overview of the challenges and opportunities that integrated quantum photonics present, highlighting recent achievement in chip-to-chip quantum communications, programmable quantum circuits, chip-based quantum simulations and routes to scalable quantum information processing. 
Professor Mark Thompson, University of Bristol, UK
Professor Mark Thompson, University of Bristol, UKMark Thompson is Professor within the Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Bristol, and is Director of the newly established Quantum Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training and Deputy Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. He holds a masters degree in Physics from University of Sheffield and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and has over five years industrial experience, including Corning Ltd, Bookham Technology Ltd and Toshiba. He holds a UK EPSRC fellowship, a European Research Council award, was the 2009 Toshiba research fellow and was awarded the 2013 IET research award. He is a member of the management team of the EPSRC Quantum Technology Hub in Quantum Communications, and currently leads a team of researchers developing integrated quantum photonic technologies for applications in quantum communications, sensing and computation. |
| 11:00 - 11:30 |
The second quantum revolution: a new world of opportunities
The first quantum revolution developed during the first half of the 20th century. First a conceptual revolution, based on wave-particle duality and on a statistical description of large ensembles of microscopic quantum objects, it enabled the technological revolution of the laser, the transistor and integrated circuits, leading to the information society. The second quantum revolution, which developed in the last decades of the 20th century, is based on entanglement and on the possibility of controlling individual quantum objects. These revolutionary concepts have lead to proposals of quantum technologies: quantum cryptography, simulation, computing, metrology. These ideas are implemented on different quantum systems, either natural (atoms, ions, photons…) or artificial (based on nanofabrication methods). Will one of these engineering solutions become dominant, or will the winners be hybrid systems? Only a broad collaboration between scientists and engineers in the various fields can bring an answer.
Professor Alain Aspect ForMemRS, Institut d'Optique, Palaiseau
Professor Alain Aspect ForMemRS, Institut d'Optique, PalaiseauBorn in 1947, Alain Aspect is an alumni of ENS Cachan and Université d'Orsay. He has been a lecturer in Institut d'Optique, Cameroon, ENS Cachan, before taking a research position at ENS/Collège de France, then with CNRS at Institut d'Optique. He is a professor at Institut d'Optique Graduate School (Augustin Fresnel chair), and at Ecole Polytechnique, in Palaiseau. He is a member of the Académie des Sciences (France), Académie des Technologies (France), National Academy of Sciences (USA), OAW (Austria), Académie Royale de Belgique, and Royal Society (London). Alain Aspect research has bore on tests of Bell's inequalities with entangled photon (PhD, 1974-1983), wave-particle duality for single photons (1984-86); laser cooling of atoms with lasers below the one photon recoil (1985-1992, with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji); ultra-cold atoms (1992- , in the Atom Optics group he has established at Institut d'Optique). |
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| 11:30 - 13:30 | Platform breakout groups |