Sponsored by
SOLUTIONS PHOTONIC
E S T • 199 9
PHOTONICS IN FOCUS: THE UK In terms of the amount of funding
available for quantum technologies in the UK, so far there have been plenty of opportunities for both SMEs and larger firms. The whole funding process is also very transparent, so from the start it’s very clear what the intentions and requirements behind the funding are, and where exactly the technology will be deployed. Two of the key figures in charge of the funding in this field, Roger McKinlay – Challenge Director of Quantum Technologies at UK Research and Innovation – and Chris Jones – Deputy ISCF Challenge Director for Quantum Technologies at Innovate UK – are both very passionate about this topic. And so it’s great to see that those responsible for these roadmaps are very familiar with the technologies and are actively interested in how they will roll out. In terms of what’s lacking, there could
SETTING THE BENCHMARK FOR MINIATURE SPECTROMETERS
Broadcom's pocket size, industrial grade spectrometers deliver high optical performance, resolution and levels of sensitivity that are unprecedented from devices of this size.
Choose from one of the many configurations within the Qseries family of compact, modular devices for UV-VIS-NIR measurements between 190 nm and 1700 nm.
Want to find out more about how these matchbox sized spectrometers can revolutionise process analytics?
www.photonicsolutions.co.uk 0131 664 8122
Scan to learn more
be more support behind the value chains for commercialising the technologies under development. For example, how does Skylark Lasers, a relatively small, young company, deploy and trial these new lasers in a real environment? For this newly
“The UK’s quantum ecosystem is a very collaborative community with a lot of strength and competence”
funded project in particular, we cannot build our own gravity sensors and deploy them on a submarine or naval ship, and so are having to work with other SMEs and larger private entities in order to do that. And so, from the Government’s perspective, aiding the creation of those value chains between different-sized entities would be a very useful aspect to consider in my opinion.
How do you see the future markets of quantum sensors differing to that of quantum computing/cryptography? I see quantum sensing as being a much higher-volume market compared to that of computing and cryptography. Consequently, a big part of our vision is not just how to realise and commercialise these technologies, but also how we can produce them at scale and how we can adapt our business to accommodate this. Once this volume production is achieved, and the cost of the technology comes down sufficiently, it’s possible that these sensors will be incorporated on the consumer level, for example in smartphones to reduce
www.electrooptics.com
INTERVIEW UK QUANTUM FUNDING
Skylark’s NX Micro COTS laser system will be trialled in futuristic gravity gradiometers
their reliance on satellite communications. It could therefore enhance everyday technologies for application in many areas. Comparatively, I don’t see quantum computers becoming a part of our everyday lives. It will instead be used in areas where a lot of parallel computing takes place, for example in running simulations of particle systems, or performing high-frequency transactions in the financial sector. And so, while quantum computing will form a very important backbone in a lot of areas, I don’t see it being as nearly a high-volume market as quantum sensing.
Where do you see your competition being in the quantum sensing space? As we are developing small, scalable lasers that are very optically pure, we will be competing with other manufacturers of mass-produced semiconductor lasers. However, our advantage is that we can approach the size of other semiconductor lasers on the market while providing optical performance similar to that of larger benchtop-sized solid-state systems. This enables superior performance to be achieved out in the field with high durability against, for example, vibrations and temperature cycles. We can’t currently see this capability being offered elsewhere, and so this should give us a good competitive advantage in the quantum sensing market.
Where do you see the shortfalls of existing laser technologies for serving quantum sensing? While there will always be ways of increasing the power and performance of lasers for this sort of application, due to the anticipated volumes the real challenge lies in delivering repeatability and durability at scale. We need to make sure these lasers can be produced in high volumes and that
they all perform exactly the same, even when deployed across a wide range of different environments. We are therefore developing
manufacturing and packaging technologies to facilitate this: technologies that, for example, accommodate changes in pressure, temperature and vibration that occur when deploying lasers in real environments. This will make them far easier to integrate in OEM and industry- scale applications.
How have you found working with the UK’s quantum ecosystem? The UK’s quantum ecosystem is a very collaborative community with a lot of strength and competence. There’s plenty of knowledge transfer between the companies and universities, and we are lucky at Skylark to have participated in many collaborative projects. This has enabled us to learn about our partners’ challenges and how they solve them, and for them to learn the same from us. It is therefore a very supportive environment – we get a lot of tips and help from other companies and universities and we try to offer the same. Another important aspect of course is
the training of new talent and therefore it is very great to see the effort universities put into nurturing future engineers and getting them ready for industrial challenges. One example is the CDT in Applied Photonics, located at Heriot-Watt University with a key focus in establishing industrial partnerships, and enabling students to solve real-life problems as part of their education. For anyone looking to gain experience in the fields of quantum technologies, that is definitely a good point to start. EO
References [1] Stray, B., Lamb, A., Kaushik, A. et al. Quantum sensing for gravity cartography. Nature 602, 590–594 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04315-3
October 2023 Electro Optics
23
Skylark Lasers
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50
