High Quantum Efficiency Detectors

量子技术是英国产业战略中的核心资产。由于量子计算机解决了目前难以处理的计算问题，它们将确保数字世界的安全，看到现有相机无法做到的地方，并支持新的药物。在与大学和研究中心的合作下，英国高科技行业正在努力将它们从科学概念转化为可用的技术、产品和能力。为了支持这一挑战，政府和行业已承诺提供超过10亿GB的资金。光子学是引领量子技术发展和部署的部门之一。光可以携带量子保密通信，测量引力波等微弱信号，并解决量子算法。基于光子学的量子技术要么需要一次测量一个光子(单光子探测器)，要么需要以最小的损失记录连续的量子光信号(比例探测器)，以保留使它们与经典光不同的特征。在这里，我们讨论量子光学技术的第二种方法。今天，基于这种测量方案的应用有限，探测器是由研究人员自制的，往往在时间和金钱上花费巨大。通过这个项目，我们结合了Bay Photonics(光学封装和光电子学)、RedWave Labs(电子学)、过程创新中心(光子应用)以及斯特拉斯克莱德大学和格拉斯哥大学研究团队(量子源、低噪声电子学、量子计量学)的专业知识和能力，设计、制造和测试能够弥补市场和供应链中这一缺口的量子传感器原型。我们的目标是提供第一个商业解决方案，用于测量由数千到数十亿个光子组成的光的量子态。流程创新中心和大学团队的参与一方面将有助于产品的设计，另一方面将作为对已开发技术的最终用户的测试。这一努力的结果将是一个通用的解决方案，用于支持量子计量学的高灵敏度测量和一些最先进的量子计算概念。

Quantum technologies are a core asset in the UK industrial strategy. They will secure the digital world, see where current cameras cannot, and underpin new drugs, thanks to quantum computers solving currently intractable calculations. In collaboration with the Universities and Research Centres, UK high-tech industries are working on translating them from scientific concepts to available technologies, products, and capabilities. To support this challenge, more than £1Billion has been committed in both Government and Industry funding. Photonics is one of the sectors leading the development and deployment of quantum technologies.Light can carry quantum-secured communications, measure faint signal such as gravitational waves, and solve quantum algorithms. Photonics-based quantum technologies are either required to measure single photons one at a time (single-photon detectors) or to record continuous quantum light signals (proportional detectors) with minimal losses to retain the signatures that make them different from classical light. Here we address this second approach to quantum optical technologies. Today, applications based on such measurement schemes are limited, and detectors are home-built by researchers, often at significant cost in time and monetary. With this project, we join the expertise and capabilities of Bay Photonics (optical packaging and optoelectronics), RedWave Labs (electronics), the experience and resources of the Centre for Process Innovation (photonic applications) and of research teams at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow (quantum sources, low-noise electronics, quantum metrology) to design, build and test a prototype of a quantum sensor able to address this gap in the market and supply chain. We aim to provide the first commercial solution for measuring quantum states of light composed of thousands to several billion photons. The engagement of the Centre for Process Innovation and the University teams will, on the one hand, contribute to the design of the product, and on the other, serve as an end-user test for the developed technology. The outcome of this endeavour will be a versatile solution for the high sensitivity measurements empowering quantum metrology and some of the most advanced concepts of quantum computing.