Blue Laser Integration with Networked Quantum-Memories (BLINQ)

光子量子计算所面临的最大挑战之一是如何在现有单光子源的基础上扩展这些系统。它们对热噪声具有鲁棒性，可在室温下使用，并通过光纤网络发送。这使得它们特别适合于纠缠的产生、操纵和远距离传输。然而，现有的单光子源是概率性的;它们不能按需产生稳定的高质量、可预测的光子流。这迫使开发人员构建具有大量冗余的光子量子计算机，一遍又一遍地重复底层组件的许多副本，希望至少部分操作是成功的。ORCA Computing开发了一种基于专有光子量子存储器的量子计算新方法;一种按需存储和检索成功量子态的方法。这种方法降低了量子操作的成本、占地面积和能源使用，并且设计成可以使用成熟的电信组件进行扩展;但它仍然需要一个兼容的单光子源，这些单光子源是专门为与存储器相互作用而定制的。Covesion是世界领先的非线性光学晶体制造商，非线性光学晶体是一种光子技术，用于将标准电信激光转换为单光子，用于量子系统。利用南安普顿大学最近开发的尖端制造技术，该项目将开发一类新的光谱定制非线性晶体，旨在与ORCA的创新量子存储平台一起操作，集成和商业规模。

One of the largest outstanding challenges faced by photonic quantum computing is how to scale these systems based on existing single photon sources.Single photons are natural carriers of quantum information. They are robust to thermal noise, can be used at room-temperature and sent over optical fibre networks. This makes them particularly suitable for generation, manipulation, and long-range transport of entanglement.However, existing sources of single photons are probabilistic; they do not generate a steady stream of high-quality, predictable photons on demand. This forces developers to build photonic quantum computers with large amounts of redundancy, repeating many copies of the underlying components over and over in the hope that at least some portion of the operation is successful. This approach is not efficient or readily scalable.ORCA Computing have developed a new approach to quantum computing based on a proprietary photonic quantum memory; a means of storing and retrieving successful quantum states on demand. This approach reduces the cost, footprint, and energy use of quantum operations and is designed to be scalable using mature telecoms components; but it still requires a compatible source of single photons that are tailored to interact with the memory.Covesion are a world leading manufacturer of nonlinear optical crystals, a photonics technology used to convert standard telecoms lasers to single photons for use with quantum systems. Using cutting-edge fabrication techniques recently developed at the University of Southampton, this project will develop a new class of spectrally-tailored nonlinear crystals designed to operate, integrate, and commercially scale with ORCA's innovative quantum memory platform.