News

Our new results from heralded distribution of entanglement are out now in Optica Quantum! In this work we experimentally demonstrated a scheme for distributing polarization-entangled photons for future quantum networks. To do this, we started with four independent single photons and created two entangled pairs from these. We then measured one photon from each pair in such a way that we entangle the two remaining photons (thus "swapping" the entanglement between the original pairs).

Mingsong has joined the Quantum Technologies team for a PhD. He received his Masters from Imperial College, where he worked with Michael Vanner on silica microresonators as quantum resources.

Hugo Zbinden, quantum technology pioneer and one of our Group Leaders, has retired after 30 years at the Department of Applied Physics. We wish Hugo all the best for his retirement and new adventures!

Rebecka Sax has received her PhD for work related to Quantum Key Distribution Systems. Thesis Title: Fast and Practical Integrated Quantum Communication Systems

A new paper on our state-of-the-art 14-pixel single photon detector with photon number resolution is now out in Nano Letters! Our novel design uses 14 independent pixels in an interleaved geometry, allowing the device to deliver high performance single-photon detection, whilst also being able to resolve the number of photons incident on the detector. These types of devices could find immediate application in linear optic quantum computing.

Patrik Caspar has received his PhD for work related to Heralded Single Photon Sources. Thesis Title: Photonic Entanglement Certification and Distribution Based on Single Photons

Two recent articles from our group demonstrate a novel photon-number-resolving (PNR) detector, based on a high-efficiency parallel SNSPD (P-SNSPD), and its application in quantum optics experiments! The results are out now in Physical Review Applied and Quantum Science and Technology. The novel architecture P-SNSPD design prevents electrical and thermal crosstalk. The development of the P-SNSPD allowed a significant improvement to be made to one of our existing heralded single photon sources.

Brand new results from our QKD work is out now in Photonics Research! Our researchers have developed a novel integrated Quantum Key Distribution system which transmits secret keys at extremely high speeds. These experiments are a crucial step towards implementing such ultra-secure communication in real-world scenarios, bringing us closer to a quantum-based future.

Rob Thew and Hugo Zbinden have been awarded the Quantum Transitional Measures Grant from the SNF! This four-year funding is intended to allow the group to continue its cutting-edge research into quantum communication and quantum technologies.

A new publication from our work with integrated micro-ring resonators is now out in Physical Review A! This work demonstrates a novel, fast, frequency-tunable narrow bandwidth photon-pair source. This is an important step towards interfacing our integrated technologies with quantum memories based on atomic systems, for realisation of quantum networks.