The goal of the PICQUE consortium is to establish a world-class training platform spreading around the highly interdisciplinary/inter-sectorial European-led area of integrated quantum photonics.
The PICQUE objectives are:
– To strengthen the research in this new and extremely fast developing strategic research field
– To teach and train the next generation of scientists, team leaders, lecturers and entrepreneurs
– To bring together the key complementary areas (and hence groups) important for establishing a European quantum integrated photoni
Quantum information science (QIS) aims at understanding the quantum nature of information and at learning how to forcs community
– To involve in close collaborations all the major European companies having a business connected with Quantum information science (QIS)
Quantum optics represents an excellent experimental test bench for various novel concepts introduced within the framework of QIS theory. However the realization of complex optical schemes consisting of many elements requires the introduction of waveguide technology to achieve the desired scalability, stability and miniaturization of the device. Hence, for photonic quantum technologies to have a significant real-world impact, quantum applications require integrated photonic devices, incorporating high efficient photon sources, detectors and circuits. High component density, low-loss and dynamically reconfigurable quantum waveguide circuits are essential to achieve a level of complexity of the circuits larger than what previously demonstrated. Fast reconfigurable waveguide circuits containing integrated detector arrays and sources will enable the realization of a variety of integration demonstrators with applications in different scientific and technological areas. The efficient generation of “true” single photon states is today a major challenge towards developing quantum-enabled photonic technologies. The realisation of a device that can outperform conventional computers remains quite distant, owing to the need for large numbers of highly-controllable photons.mulate, manipulate and process it using physical systems by following the principles of quantum mechanics, regarding in particular the control and manipulation of individual quantum degrees of freedom. To this end, completely new schemes of information transfer and processing, enabling new forms of communication and enhancing the computational power, are expected. Incorporating the laws of quantum physics in data storage, processing and transmission may unleash new possibilities for information processing, ranging from quantum communication to quantum sensing, metrology, simulation and computing.
At the moment, Europe has a unique leading position in this new and fast expanding innovative research area. Indeed, a large number of world-leading groups in this field are located in Europe and represent the core of this international training network. However, realizing the promise of integrated quantum photonics requires research and training that crosses disciplines, such as photonic engineering, quantum physics, as well as materials science.
To address this challenging goal, PICQUE involves ten partners and eight associated partners coming from seven different European countries having expertise ranging from the generation of single photon states, their manipulation with different techniques, their efficient detection up to the application of photonic technologies to quantum simulation and sensing.
The main objective of the PICQUE consortium is represented by the establishment of a world-class training platform spreading around the highly interdisciplinary / inter-sectorial European-led area of integrated photonics. This stands as a new discipline where the need for scientists will significantly increase in the near future, both in the academia and in industries. The future players in this field will require complementary skills, on one side know-how on material sciences, optical engineering, and quantum physics, and on the other side capabilities in project management, intellectual property protection, and starting up new companies. All these ingredients are brought together in the proposed training program with a synergic collaboration between research groups from several different countries and in tight inter-connection with the private sector.
The PICQUE project fosters fundamental science in the field of photonic quantum information processing, which has the potential for a breakthrough in many technological areas. Moreover, since the research training program is built on a technological perspective, we can foresee that the outcomes will benefit many current areas of photonic engineering : from sensing to communication applications.