Quantum Technology is a radically new form of information technology with the potential to become a major industry, comparable to conventional IT, and crucial for the digital single market and economic growth. Massive global investments are driving its development.
Most quantum technologies focus on localized quantum states, like superconducting circuits or trapped electron spins. In contrast, this project explores propagating quantum states at frequencies beyond 10 GHz. At these scales, excitations behave like electrons or photons, enabling applications in quantum communication, sensing, and computation. Pushing further into the THz regime is extremely challenging for electronics—until now, only optical methods could access such timescales electrically.
UltraFastNano aims to create the first quantum nanoelectronics platform operating at picosecond timescales. For example, semiconductor qubits have naturally short coherence times, requiring ultrafast operation. A key performance measure is the ratio between a qubit’s coherence time and its operation time. With UltraFastNano, we will push operation speeds to 1 picosecond, unlocking new potential for quantum nanoelectronics.
The UltraFastNano project will pioneer new concepts at the crossroads between quantum optics and solid-state nanoelectronics. Its aim is to achieve full control of quantum excitations that propagate through the quantum devices on the picosecond scale, about three orders of magnitude faster than other quantum technologies. The main objectives include
• Picosecond on-demand coherent single-particle source
• Single-shot detection of propagating excitations at the discrete charge level
• Quantum interferometry at the single-charge level
• New software for predictive simulation and optimisation of ultrafast quantum devices.
In the UltraFastNano project, we have developed the foundation for a quantum technology based on propagating electron wave packets. This approach holds the potential to significantly reduce the hardware footprint compared to mainstream quantum computing methods. A patent has been filed to protect this new quantum architecture.
In the future, connecting this architecture with photonic systems will be important for enabling long-distance quantum communication. As an initial step, we have developed an electron-photon interface, for which a separate patent has been filed.
