A Southampton photonics team will build ultra-stable lasers and new optical materials that can efficiently change the colour of light, then turn them into working demonstrators for industry. These components solve a practical bottleneck: quantum technologies need exceptionally quiet, stable light sources and wavelength converters, but current versions are too bulky, expensive, or fragile for real-world use. The project aims to manufacture two specific devices. The first is an infrared detector that sees extremely low light levels without expensive cooling. The second is a system that measures live optical fibre links, which could improve internet reliability and download speeds. If the demonstrators prove viable, companies could adopt the components for telecommunications, sensing, or quantum computing. The work also pushes fundamental science—by using high-reflectivity cavities to exploit quantum properties, the team will create photons with unique characteristics, such as pairs that can be fused into single higher-energy photons while preserving quantum information. That capability underpins future quantum networks and sensors, even if the immediate output is a better laser and a cheaper detector.
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This Fellowship application will provide support for a leading Photonics Engineering Academic, Prof Peter Smith, University of Southampton, to build a research team to address industry and academic led challenges in Quantum Technologies. The project is entitled QuINTESSEnCE - standing for Quantum Integrated Nonlinear Technology Enabling Stable, Scaleable Engineered for Commercial Exploitation. This title reflects our desire to develop technology that will be stable and applicable in real-world applications, and move that towards developing a supply chain to take Quantum Technologies towards commercial reality. The work will focus on building optical components and photonic manufacturing capability for the next generation of science and, by working closely with companies, to provide the components needed to underpin the application of quantum enabled technology to address a wide range of societal and economic challenges. Two core technologies will be developed, the first being lasers that are exceptionally stable and low noise, and ideally suited for use in a wide range of science applications. The second technology will see the development of new optical materials capable of converting the wavelength (colour) of laser light, efficiently and cheaply. The approach will use high reflecting cavities to enhance the light fields, giving high conversion efficiency and, importantly, exploiting the laws of quantum science to create photons with unique properties. The highlight of the project will be manufacturing demonstrators of our quantum enabled optical technology to take to companies and end-users that will act to prove their value. Two demonstration areas are planned, firstly detectors that will be able to see extremely low light levels in the infra-red without the need for expensive cooling to prevent noise. The second will be to use our lasers and cavities to show advantage in measuring optical fibre links while they are in use, improving data reliability on the internet and increasing down-load speeds. Detectors and other devices will be based on fundamental quantum properties, in which two photons can be fused together to create a single photon with higher energy but preserving fundamental quantum information in the photons themselves.
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