5 million in quest for ’missing link’ in quantum communication

Delft University of Technology and its Kavli Institute of Nanoscience received a five-million-dollar grant from The Kavli Foundation to fund a collaborative effort to develop the quantum equivalent of telecommunication. A team of 14 quantum physicists and biophysicists have set out to find a missing link between quantum computing, sensing, and communication: a transduction system to send and receive quantum information across a broad range of frequencies. This system would allow for a standardised way of connecting quantum devices and sharing information between them, similar to how the worldwide telecommunication network connects us today and allows us to share information through the internet, Bluetooth, phone calls, and more. With the upcoming revolution of quantum computers, complex problems that would take traditional computers years to solve can be solved in mere seconds. Classical computers process bits, which are tiny pieces of information that make up data, denoted as either a 0 or 1. Everything that is shared online consists of bits, including WhatsApp messages, pictures and TikTok videos. Qubits, the analogue of bits used in quantum computers, have many more possible states, allowing for more complex and faster processing of information within a computer.