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The potential and global outlook of integrated photonics for quantum technologies

Nature Reviews Physics volume 4, pages 194–208 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Integrated quantum photonics uses classical integrated photonic technologies and devices for quantum applications. As in classical photonics, chip-scale integration has become critical for scaling up and translating laboratory demonstrators to real-life technologies. Integrated quantum photonics efforts are centred around the development of quantum photonic integrated circuits, which can be monolithically, hybrid or heterogeneously integrated. In this Roadmap, we argue, through specific examples, for the value that integrated photonics brings to quantum technologies and discuss what applications may become possible in the future by overcoming the current roadblocks. We provide an overview of the research landscape and discuss the innovation and market potential. Our aim is to stimulate further research by outlining not only the scientific challenges of materials, devices and components associated with integrated photonics for quantum technologies but also those related to the development of the necessary manufacturing infrastructure and supply chains for delivering these technologies to the market.

Key points

  • Photonic quantum technologies have reached a number of important milestones in the last 20 years, culminating with the recent demonstrations of quantum advantage and space-to-ground quantum communication.

  • Scalability remains a strong challenge across all platforms, but photonic quantum technologies can benefit from the parallel developments in classical photonic integration.

  • More research is required as multiple challenges reside in the intrinsically hybrid nature of integrated photonic platforms, which require a variety of multiple materials, device design and integration strategies.

  • The complex innovation cycle for integrated photonic quantum technologies requires investments, the resolution of specific technological challenges, the development of the necessary infrastructure and further structuring towards a mature ecosystem.

  • There is an increasing demand for scientists and engineers with substantial knowledge of both quantum mechanics and its technological applications.

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Fig. 1: qPIC architecture.
Fig. 2: The potential of the innovation cycle for photonic quantum technologies.

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Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 820423 (S2QUIP), no. 860579 (MoSaiQ), no. 820404 (iqClock), no. 820474 (UNIQORN) and no. 899814 (Qurope). This research was supported by Science Foundation Ireland under grant nos. 15/IA/2864 and 12/RC/2276_P2. G.F. acknowledges support by the European Union funded ASCENT+ programme (grant agreement ID: 871130). Fl.S. thanks the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for grant no. NWA.QUANTUMNANO.2019.002, Quantum Inertial Navigation. I.A. acknowledges the Australian Research Council (CE200100010) and the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (FA2386-20-1-4014) for the financial support. Q.G. and J.W. acknowledge the National Key R&D Program of China (nos. 2019YFA0308702 and 2018YFB2200403), the Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 61975001 and 11527901), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Z190005) and Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province (2018B030329001). Fa.S. acknowledges support by the ERC Advanced Grant QU-BOSS (QUantum advantage via nonlinear BOSon Sampling, grant agreement no. 884676). N.M. is grateful for support from JST CREST JPMJCR2004, MEXT Q-LEAP JPMXS0118067581 and JSPS KAKENHI JP20H02648.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Emanuele Pelucchi & Giorgos Fagas

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia

    Igor Aharonovich

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Dirk Englund

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Eden Figueroa

  5. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Eden Figueroa

  6. State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Qihuang Gong & Jianwei Wang

  7. Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics & Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Qihuang Gong & Jianwei Wang

  8. Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong, Jiangsu, China

    Qihuang Gong & Jianwei Wang

  9. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria

    Hübel Hannes

  10. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Jin Liu

  11. CAS Centre for Excellence and Synergetic Innovation Centre in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai, China

    Chao-Yang Lu & Jian-Wei Pan

  12. Department of Communications Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Nobuyuki Matsuda

  13. Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Florian Schreck

  14. QuSoft, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Florian Schreck

  15. Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Fabio Sciarrino

  16. Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems, Center for Optoelectronics and Photonics Paderborn and Physics Department, Paderborn University, Paderborn, Germany

    Christine Silberhorn & Klaus D. Jöns

Authors
  1. Emanuele Pelucchi
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  2. Giorgos Fagas
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  3. Igor Aharonovich
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  4. Dirk Englund
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  5. Eden Figueroa
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  6. Qihuang Gong
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  7. Hübel Hannes
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  8. Jin Liu
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  15. Jianwei Wang
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  16. Klaus D. Jöns
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Contributions

E.P., G.F. and K.D.J. conceived the perspective article. E.P., G.F. and K.D.J. drafted the initial manuscript, with contributions from J.W., Fa.S., C.S. and D.E. All authors have read, discussed and contributed to the writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript before submission. K.D.J. coordinated and managed the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Klaus D. Jöns.

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Nature Reviews Physics thanks Juan Arrazola, Di Liang and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Related links

CQC2T: https://www.cqc2t.org/

EQUS: https://equs.org/

TMOS: https://tmos.org.au/

Glossary

Silicon photonics

A materials platform for photonic integrated circuits. It uses silicon as the main optical medium and easily combines electronic and infrared optic elements.

Monolithic integration

The creation of multiple components on (the same) chip, as in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor electronic integrated chips in silicon. The creation of all different functionalities is achieved by the same production platform and materials associated to it, with no external addition. Better understood as opposed to hybrid or heterogeneous integration.

Quantum repeater

A device capable of allowing transmission over long distances of quantum signals beyond the limits imposed by fibre losses (i.e. it allows repeating it over several network segments), without destroying the quantum superposition/features. Typical schemes share entanglement over several nodes and (often) necessitate quantum memories.

Coherent receivers

Receivers of an optical signal that are capable of recognizing both the intensity and the phase terms of the impinging light.

Feedforward operation

Feedforward is the process of monitoring a physical system and subsequently using the attained information to change the system, so as to control it towards a certain target state. For example, in quantum circuits, this implies taking a decision on how to modify a section of the circuit that will be active at a later stage after a specific previous outcome of another section of the circuit is known. Time constraints during operation are significant in this case.

Cluster states

Refers to a specific type of highly entangled state of multiple qubits. The design is such that, after a measurement on a single qubit component is performed, entanglement between the other components is preserved. Cluster states are especially useful in the context of the one-way quantum computer.

Quantum memory

A device capable (for a certain amount of time) of storing quantum information (or quantum state) and later release it on demand (it is, in short, the quantum-mechanical version of ordinary computer memory). They represent essential building blocks in quantum networks.

Dynamic range

The range of values that a certain apparatus/detector can achieve for a specific application.

Hybrid integration

The insertion in various ways of heterogeneous components to a specific chip platform, for example, by gluing external components or by other methods, such as wafer bonding, transfer print and so on.

Heterogeneous integration

The direct deposition of various active materials (different from that of the chip, such as III–V semiconductors on silicon) on the chip wafers.

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Pelucchi, E., Fagas, G., Aharonovich, I. et al. The potential and global outlook of integrated photonics for quantum technologies. Nat Rev Phys 4, 194–208 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00398-z

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