Project description
Improving colour centre qubit discovery speeds
Quantum technologies have attracted increasing interest in recent years thanks to their potential applications across a variety of fields. Colour centres, defects in crystals that make good qubits, are key to these technologies. Despite this, our understanding of colour centres and which ones can make good qubits is severely lacking, requiring extensive measurements and assessments, leading to very few having been discovered to date. The ERC-funded DISQOVER project aims to develop an on-chip platform for exploring colour centres. This platform will use an array of highly concentrated tools, methods, designs, protocols, and innovations to dramatically improve qubit discovery speeds and enhance automation. This solution has the potential to revolutionise quantum computing and deliver key breakthroughs.
Objective
Color centers are central to many quantum technologies, but today it takes years to understand whether a given color center makes a good qubit, and as a result we have discovered very few of them. I will develop an on-chip color center exploration platform that drastically accelerates qubit discovery.
Color centers are defects in crystals, such as an atom of a given element substituting one of the crystal atoms. Color centers make good qubits by combining the long coherence of spins, the networking properties of photons, and the scaling of the solid state. For example, photons emitted from distant color centers were used to entangle their spins, advancing quantum communication and confirming the quantum mechanical nature of reality.
However, today it takes years and many measurements involving multiple physical principles to assess whether a new color center fits a certain application. In addition, the number of potential candidates is vast, only bound by the number of combinations of atomic elements. This leaves an enormous potential unexplored, limiting our discovered qubits to a small subset with trade-offs in coherence, scalability, and connectivity.
DISQOVER will allow unprecedented exploration of the vast search space of color centers, an impossible task for the current technology. This requires highly concerted innovation on tools, designs, methods, and protocols that combine traditionally separated fields. I will develop innovations in integrated photonics and mechanics, fields in which I am an expert, and combine them with local thermal control into an automated qubit discovery platform. With this, I will pursue qubits for quantum computing, transduction, sensing, and amplification. This will kick-start the field of application-specific qubits (ASQs) and transform the technological landscape, leading to breakthroughs in error correction for quantum computers and networks at scale, versatile quantum sensing, and lasing and amplification in silicon.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering computer hardware quantum computers
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics semiconductivity
- natural sciences physical sciences quantum physics quantum optics
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics photons
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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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.
2628 CN DELFT
Netherlands
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.