A High-Performance Light-Matter Quantum Network

研究背景：互联网已经成为当今社会不可或缺的工具。然而，通过该网络的数据传输从根本上是不安全的。数据安全以及防止身份盗窃和网络攻击对我们当前和未来的社会至关重要。量子互联网的发明解决了这些安全问题-一种基于量子比特编码和传输信息的网络-因为量子物理学的原理确保了完全和基本的安全通信。量子网络是缺少的关键技术，然而，一个主要的障碍仍有待克服：可扩展性。构建量子网络依赖于生成大量单个量子对象（在这种情况下是光子-光的单个量子）并在它们之间进行受控的相互作用。然而，量子物体的脆弱性意味着即使成功制备一个也是偶然的-就像抛硬币一样。向网络中添加更多的量子对象就像添加更多的硬币一样-得到所有正面的整体机会大大减少，因此大规模的量子网络从未实现过。我将用量子光学存储器来解决这个关键问题--一种可以按需存储和调用光子的设备，使人们能够在网络上同步成功的"抛硬币"。总体目标是建立和开发一个高性能的光物质量子网络。目的/目标：为了实现这一目标，我将利用我在量子光物质相互作用方面的专业知识，在电信行业已经使用的波长上建立一个超快，高效，低噪声的量子存储器。我将利用两个互补的平台，具有对规模重要的物理能力-温暖的碱蒸汽和低温冷却的固体稀土离子-以及我开创的量子存储协议，以前所未有的水平提供量子存储性能。有了这个设备，我将展示一个混合量子光物质接口与存储和按需召回的光子，确保光的量子特性得到保留。这个演示形成了网络基础的关键技术，我现在将使用两个量子存储器来有效地接口和存储来自远程位置的不同量子源的光子-一个双节点网络。然后，我将扩展这个光物质网络，以允许控制多个存储器和光子，从而首次执行量子通信任务。潜在应用：同样，晶体管的发明导致了计算和通信的迅速发展，彻底改变了世纪，量子网络是基础技术，有可能在21世纪带来重大变化和长期社会经济影响。高性能的光物质量子网络将带来固有的安全通信，更准确的全球时钟同步，以提高GPS的准确性，甚至可以扩展望远镜的基线，以改善观测。量子物体的网络可以形成量子计算机，其功能足以解决当前计算机无法解决的问题，并有可能影响医疗保健，制药和绿色能源领域的研究方法。使用量子网络的高效模拟和优化计算可以为流行病学和遗传研究带来好处，降低治疗新疾病的药物设计成本，并有助于改进替代能源的人工光捕获设备，未来几十年可能会发现更多有用的应用。从短期来看，我的项目将有助于培养下一代量子科学家，并产生有价值的知识产权，供衍生公司利用，进一步推动英国新兴的量子技术产业。

Research Context: The internet has become an indispensable tool in today's society. However, data transfer over this network is fundamentally insecure. Security of data and protection against identity theft and cyber-attacks is of crucial importance for our current and future society. These security concerns are addressed with the invention of a quantum internet - a network based on encoding and transmitting information as quantum bits - as the principles of quantum physics ensure total and fundamental secure communication. Quantum networks are the missing key technology, however, a major roadblock remains to be overcome: scalability. Building quantum networks relies on generating large numbers of individual quantum objects (in this case photons - single quanta of light) and performing controlled interactions between them. However, the fragile nature of quantum objects means that successfully preparing even one happens by chance - like a coin toss. Adding more quantum objects to a network is like adding more coins to toss - the overall chance of getting all heads reduces greatly, and so a large-scale quantum network has never been achieved. I will address this crucial issue with a quantum optical memory - a device that can store and recall photons on demand enabling one to synchronise the successful "coin tosses" across the network. The overall aim is to build and exploit a high-performance light-matter quantum network.Aims/Objectives: To achieve this aim, I will utilise my expertise in quantum light-matter interactions to build an ultrafast, high-efficiency, low-noise quantum memory at wavelengths already used in the telecoms industry. I will utilise two complementary platforms with miniaturisation capability important for scale - warm alkali vapours and cryogenically cooled rare-earth ions in solids - together with quantum memory protocols that I have pioneered, to deliver a quantum memory performance at an unprecedented level. With this device, I will demonstrate a hybridised quantum light-matter interface with the storage and on-demand recall of photons ensuring that the quantum properties of the light are preserved. This demonstration forms the key technology for the basis of the network, where I will now use two quantum memories to efficiently interface and store photons from disparate quantum sources at remote locations - a two-node network. I will then scale this light-matter network to allow for the control of multiple memories and photons to enact quantum communication tasks for the first-time.Potential Applications: In the same way the invention of the transistor led to rapid advances in computation and communications, revolutionising the 20th century, quantum networks are the underpinning technology that have the potential to bring significant change and long-term social-economic impact in the 21st century. A high-performance light-matter quantum network will bring inherently secure communication, more accurate global clock synchronization for enhanced GPS accuracy, and could even allow extending the baselines of telescopes for improved observations. Networks of quantum objects can form quantum computers that are powerful enough to solve problems that current computers cannot, with the potential to impact methods of research in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and green energy sectors. Efficient simulation and optimised computation using quantum networks could provide benefits in epidemiology and genetic research, cut costs in medication design to treat new diseases, and help improve artificial light-harvesting devices for alternative energy sources, with many more useful applications likely to be discovered in the coming decades. In the shorter term, my project will aid in training the next generation of quantum scientists and generate valuable IP to be exploited by spinout companies, further forwarding the emergent quantum technologies industry in the UK.