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Microwave Quantum Photonics for Quantum Technology and Fundamental Physics

Project description

Novel tools to count the statistics of microwave photons

Microwave photons, including superconducting, charge and spin qubits, are crucial in solid-state quantum technology architectures. However, their statistical properties remain poorly explored owing to the lack of suitable microwave photodetectors. Funded by the European Research Council, the QPHOTON project plans to create sensors with exceptional time resolution, surpassing the Heisenberg limit, thereby providing novel measurement tools for the quantum technology field. This could lead to quantum computing based on boson sampling with superconducting circuits, combining programmability capabilities and a stronger quantum advantage. The proposed research will shed further insight into the interplay between correlated bosonic and fermionic states, spurring new experimental activities around many-body physics.

Objective

With the proposed research programme we plan to pioneer a platform that provides experimental access to the statistics of the microwave photons, thus opening up single-photon experiments in solid-state quantum devices.

Microwave photons play a major role throughout all solid-state quantum technology architectures, including superconducting qubits as well as charge and spin qubits in semiconductors, where they are used for control, coupling and readout. However, the particle nature of the photons and in particular their statistical properties remain unexplored. The main roadblock here is the lack of suitable microwave photodetectors for performing continuous photon counting at high quantum conversion efficiency.

We will create sensors probing the timing between two photons with time resolution better than the timeuncertainty Heisenberg limit of the individual photons. Thereby we will create novel measurement tools applicable throughout the quantum technology field. In particular, the photon counting developed in this research programme will open up the avenue to implement quantum computing based on so-called boson sampling with superconducting circuits, combining two key requirements for practical quantum computing: the programmability of the superconducting circuits and the stronger quantum advantage of quantum processors based on boson sampling.

Beyond enabling these new measurement capabilities, on the fundamental side we generate unique experimental insights. The interplay between correlated bosonic and fermionic states e.g. on how the bosonic particle statistics of the photons map onto the fermionic ones of the electrons is likely to spur new experimental activities around many-body physics. Furthermore, the detection timing resolution beyond the Heisenberg limit will also shed light on the still unknown physics question on how measurements really work and act in the quantum physics domain.

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG

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Host institution

LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 533 247,50
Address
Paradisgatan 5c
22100 Lund
Sweden

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Region
Södra Sverige Sydsverige Skåne län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 533 247,50

Beneficiaries (1)

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