Silicon Quantum Photonics

量子信息科学和技术结合了20世纪的两大科学发现——量子力学和信息论，为处理和传输信息提供了一种全新而强大的方法。通过在量子系统中编码信息，量子信息处理承诺了巨大的计算能力，而量子通信已经处于商业化的第一阶段，并提供了最终的信息安全。然而，为了使量子技术对科学、技术和社会产生预期的巨大影响，需要一个实用的可扩展集成平台，其中所有关键组件都可以集成到单个微芯片技术中，这非常类似于第一个微电子集成电路的开发。在实现量子技术的各种方法中，单光粒子（光子）由于其低噪声特性和易于在单量子位水平上操作而特别吸引人。利用单光子的量子力学特性，利用奇异的量子特性，如叠加和纠缠，提供编码、处理和传输信息的新方法是可能的。量子光子学有望在信息处理、通信和传感领域成为一项真正具有颠覆性的技术，并有助于加深我们对基础量子物理学和量子信息科学的理解。然而，目前的方法仅限于简单的光学电路，光子数低，探测器效率低，没有明确的可扩展性。为了使量子光学信息科学超越目前的限制，并使量子应用对现实世界产生重大影响，迫切需要开发一个完全集成的量子光子技术平台，以实现能够产生、操纵和检测大光子数态的大型复杂量子电路。该奖学金将使PI和他的研究团队能够开发这样一个基于硅光子学的技术平台。借鉴为硅微电子工业开发的先进制造技术，最先进的硅量子光子器件将实现紧凑，大规模和复杂的量子电路，实验和应用。该技术平台将以可扩展的方式克服当前的8光子屏障，使电路具有前所未有的复杂性，并将用于解决重要的基础问题，开发量子通信的新方法，增强量子传感的性能，为量子模拟的新路线提供平台，并实现可以挑战传统计算极限的计算复杂性。这个多学科研究项目将把工程师、物理学家和工业合作伙伴聚集在一起，共同应对这些科学和技术挑战。

Quantum information science and technologies offer a completely new and powerful approach to processing and transmitting information by combining two of the great scientific discoveries of the 20th century - quantum mechanics and information theory. By encoding information in quantum systems, quantum information processing promises huge computation power, while quantum communications is already in its first stages of commercialisation, and offers the ultimate in information security. However, for quantum technologies to have as big an impact on science, technology and society as anticipated, a practical scalable integration platform is required where all the key components can be integrated to a single micro-chip technology, very much akin to the development of the first microelectronic integrated circuits.Of the various approaches to realising quantum technologies, single particles of light (photons) are particularly appealing due to their low-noise properties and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level. It is possible to harness the quantum mechanical properties of single photons, taking advantage of strange quantum properties such as superposition and entanglement to provide new ways to encode, process and transmit information. Quantum photonics promises to be a truly disruptive technology in information processing, communications and sensing, and for deepening our understanding of fundamental quantum physics and quantum information science. However, current approaches are limited to simple optical circuits with low photon numbers, inefficient detectors and no clear routes to scalability.For quantum optic information science to go beyond current limitations, and for quantum applications to have a significant real-world impact, there is a clear and urgent need to develop a fully integrated quantum photonic technology platform to realise large and complex quantum circuits capable of generating, manipulating and detecting large photon-number states. This Fellowship will enable the PI and his research team to develop such a technology platform, based on silicon photonics. Drawing from the advanced fabrication technologies developed for the silicon microelectronics industry, state of the art silicon quantum photonic devices will enable compact, large-scale and complex quantum circuits, experiments and applications. This technology platform will overcome the current 8-photon barrier in a scalable way, enable circuits of unprecedented complexity, and will be used to address important fundamental questions, develop new approaches to quantum communications, enhance the performance of quantum sensing, provide a platform for new routes to quantum simulations, and achieve computational complexities that can challenge the limits of conventional computing. This multidisciplinary research programme will bring together engineers, physicists and industrial partners to tackle these scientific and technological challenges.