- Research
Ki3 Photonics and another Canadian start-up are receiving a major grant from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study new quantum information platforms.
The generation and control of entangled particles are critical to future quantum technologies and the deployment of large-scale networks.
Quantum computing and telecommunications are currently experiencing significant improvements, but several challenges remain. The start-up Ki3 Photonics, launched by students of Professor Roberto Morandotti of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), has decided to tackle some of them. The team is collaborating with the start-up company Quantum Bridge Technologies.
Their work focuses on entanglement, a phenomenon that occurs when two or more particles share the same quantum state, regardless of the distance between them. The generation and control of entangled particles are critical to future quantum technologies and the deployment of large-scale networks.
Pushing the limits
The funding of more than half a million from the Air Force Research will further the understanding of how the creation and manipulation of large quantum systems can be scaled.
“We’re honoured to receive this support, which we’ll use to quantify the advantages and limitations of large quantum states for quantum photonics infrastructures.”
Yoann Jestin, cofounder of Ki3 Photonics
Physicist and INRS graduate Stefania Sciara works alongside Yoann Jestin and Piotr Roztocki, also cofounder of Ki3 Photonics. She is particularly interested in large quantum states, which are necessary to increase communications distances. “It would not be an exaggeration to call such states the holy grail of the field,” says the recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal and the Director General’s Award for Excellence.
However, Piotr Roztocki, winner of the 2020 Paul Baran Young Scholar Award, points out the limitations of human-based quantum investigations. “We just aren’t equipped to think in the high dimensions these states occupy. Computers are. Which is why we’re targeting a framework that combines recent advances in learning and optimization towards these hard problems we’re facing. We’re optimistic about our chances.”
