PHOTONICS100: QUANTUM Q&A Quantum beyond computing
Quantum’s relationship with photonics doesn’t just stop at better processors, as the work of some of our Photonics100 shows
T
o anyone not hiding under a rock, quantum is increasingly big business.
As Electro Optics reported last month, Carmen Palacios- Berraquero, the founder and CEO of Nu Quantum and a Photonics100 honouree, told a Photonics West panel that the recent acquisition of three integrated photonics companies is a “strong signal from the market” that the technology is going to be needed to scale-up quantum systems. This is supported by market
projections and event coverage. According to a report by Future Market Insights, the quantum photonics market alone is predicted to reach a global market valuation of $6.6bn by 2034, up from an estimated $300m in 2023. In the past year, SPIE has expanded the Quantum West section of its Photonics West conference, adding the Quantum West Business Summit, which highlighted the work involved in moving quantum technologies to market; and the Quantum West Expo, which showcased worldwide providers of the latest quantum technologies. SPIE’s decision reflects that of Messe Munich, which had added
the ‘Laser World of Quantum’ exhibition to its last Laser World of Photonics event. The move by both organisers highlights once again that quantum technologies are now beginning to emerge from the lab in the form of complete market-ready systems, set for deployment in real-world applications. Back in ‘the lab’ however, we
asked some of our Photonics100 honourees (for the full 2024 list, see
www.electrooptics.com/ thephotonics100) about their work in the wider quantum realm: Igor Meglinski, Professor in Quantum Biophotonics and Biomedical Engineering, Aston University, says his biggest research priority in 2024 is “to investigate the interaction of quantum light and shaped light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) with biological tissues and their components, including cells, cell organelles, collagen, muscle fibres, keratin, and glucose”. Meglinksi says these components manifest optical properties such as birefringence, chirality, absorption, and anisotropy of scattering, which significantly alter the quantum properties of light and that “preliminary results suggest that these properties vary with specific diseases”. “Therefore, the alterations of
Igor Meglinski, Professor in Quantum Biophotonics and Biomedical Engineering
20 Electro Optics March 2024
the properties of non-classical light have a great potential to serve as new markers for certain diseases, providing a unique opportunity to detect cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, various dementias, epilepsy, and other tissue malformations with sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit,” he says. Meanwhile, Ventsislav
Valev, Head of the Department of Physics at the University of
Ventsislav Valev, who is Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Bath
Bath, is using quantum optical effects to increase the sensitivity of his work, investigating the chirality transfer between molecules and nanoparticles, which, according to him, is “the first step in human-made self- assembly”. “We build unique optical experiments, using innovative, award-winning physical methods recently discovered in our team, which had eluded scientists for more than 40 years. Now, we aim to demonstrate yet another, important, new physical effect that was predicted 45 years ago. We also seek to increase the sensitivity of the new effects using quantum optical methods (by building and integrating a squeezed light source),” he said. “At the level of fundamental science, together with new fundamental particles, new physical laws and new physical constants, new physical effects are among the most significant scientific advances. Our success would therefore have a clear
scientific impact in nonlinear photonics.
“In addition, we expect that
our work will help reshape several scientific areas: in nanoscience, it could help to establish novel material principles; in synthetic biology, it could contribute to refining self-assembly techniques; in chemistry, it could enable more efficient high-throughput synthesis; and in pharmaceutical science, it could gain new tools for drug discovery.” Valev says his group’s priority is to demonstrate that the nonlinear chiroptical scattering effects they discovered (“and those that we still aim to demonstrate”) are general. “For this purpose, we are
looking for a variety of physical systems (nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanocrystals, clusters, polymers, molecules, hybrid materials, etc.) where we aim to record the effects,” he continues. “There have been decades between theory and
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