Showcase archive

Browse our archive for more work from our quantum experts.

2021 at a glance

• Prof. Alessia Pasquazi of EPic Lab introduces the recent achievement from J.Zhang and coworkers on Optomechanics Dissipative Solitons in Nature Physics journal.
• Congratulations to Prof. Marco Peccianti who leads our EPic Lab. He's been has been elected to the Optica Fellows Class 2022 “For sustained pioneering contributions to the field of optical complexity and the development of novel terahertz applications based on ultrafast nonlinear photonics”. Read the announcement here.
• Aikaterini Gialopsou, a doctoral researcher in our Quantum Systems and Devices group, has led on research using quantum sensors to demonstrate a new technique spotting bio-markers for detecting health problems in the brain. Read the recently published paper in Scientific Reports journal, and more about her research here.
  
• Vivek Kumar and Vittorio Cecconi of our EPic Lab not only presented at the IONS Ireland 2021 conference, but won a prize too! Their Sussex Optica Student Chapter were victorious in their submission to The Wonderful World of Optics competition with the submission Optical Phenomenon Iridescence.
• Prof. Winfried Hensinger joins IdeaXMe as their latest board advisor. IdeaXMe is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme who aim to inspire future innovators and pioneers. 
• Another journal publication from the EPic Lab in Physical Review Research: Terahertz Emission Mediated by Ultrafast Time-varying Metasurfaces.
• Prof. Jacob Dunningham, Deputy Director of SCQT, can now add science advisor to Hollywood to his list of achievements! Jacob was thrilled to be approached by Paramount Pictures to advise on complex quantum equations which feature on the wall of the star, Mark Wahlberg, in the film Infinite. The film investigates parallel universes and you can read more about Jacob's experience here.
• As the University of Sussex celebrates it's 60th birthday, we're delighted that our own Prof. Winfried Hensinger has been identified as contributing to one of a handful of landmark, impactful research breakthroughs. His first quantum computer blueprint was published in 2017 to great media acclaim.
• The Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Kate Green MP, and Shadow Minister for Universities, Matt Western MP, take a break from the Labour Party Conference in Brighton to visit the University of Sussex. Among their meetings, they receive a tour of the Quantum Accelerator Building to find out more about the research of Prof. Peter Kruger's Quantum Systems and Devices group.
• A commercial battery imaging system born out of collaborative work between the Quantum Systems and Devices group and Brighton green energy start-up CD02 is unveiled at the low carbon vehicle technology event Cenex-LCV, 22-23 September. Read more about it's development and useage here.
• Prof. Alessia Pasquazi is a ‘Special Invited’ speaker at the European Optical Society Annual Meeting in Rome, 13-17 September.  Alessia presents her talk 'Microcombs based on laser configuration: laser cavity solitons in a nested cavity geometry'.
• Prof. Winfried Hensinger describes his personal journey across three continents and four countries to achieve his ultimate goal of developing a scalable quantum computer. He's interviewed for Careers in Quantum 2021 about The Future of Quantum Computing in Academia and Industry.
• Our EPic lab is leading the fight against counterfeit goods.Their Terahertz Ink (THink) uses a novel technology developed here at the University of Sussex in collaboration with the Materials Physics Group, and has a wide range of business applications across industries. Read more about these exciting developments in U2B Education for Careers.
• Another paper from the Ion Quantum Technology group. Christophe Valahu et al explain Robust Entanglement by Continuous Dynamical Decoupling of the J-Coupling Interaction.
• Colleagues in the Ion Quantum Technology group achieve a breakthrough four years after setting up their unique ion trapping system which is installed with two chips, one chip being moved precisely using piezo actuators. They trap a string of 14 ions and next plan to align the chips and shuttle individual ions between them, thus creating a link for transferring quantum information. The experiment demonstrates key aspects of a scalable architecture for building quantum computers using many connected ion trap chips.
• Dr Alessia Pasquazi features on Live and Virtual - a Journey through Quantum Technologies organised by Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. She shows us the reality of quantum technologies that already underpin our personal everyday way of living, and explains the importance to us all of the coming of age pocket atomic clocks and quantum computers.
• Prof. Winfried Hensinger describes how a microchip-based quantum computer has been built incorporating an architecture in which calculations are carried out by shuttling atomic ions, with excellent performance and potential for scaling up: Quantum Computer Based on Shuttling Trapped Ions, Nature 592, 190-191.
• Three of our PhD students in the EPic Lab win prizes at the CLEO EU conference, more than any other institution! Congratulations Vittorio Cecconi, Robyn Tucker and Antonio Cutrona.
• Research in the EPic Lab, led by Prof. Marco Peccianti, has great significance for the evolution of ultra-fast communication devices. Read more in our article Sussex Scientists Develop Ultra-Thin Terahertz Source, Paving the way to Next Generation of Communication Technology.
• The University of Sussex She can STEM society feature Dr Alessia Pasquazi in the final Q&A in their video series 'YES, She Can', rounding off a week of promotional activity to support International Women's Day.
• Dr Tom Barrett and Dr Will Evans from our Quantum Systems and Devices group have their paper published  An Environmental Monitoring Network for Gas Experiments and Devices, on arXiv.org.
• Prof. Marco Peccianti has his article Grand Challenges in Photonics: Route to Light featured in Frontiers in Photonics. He also joins the Sussex Programme for Quantum Research Seminar Series with a talk 'Looking with Ultrafast Terahertz Eyes'.
• The year commenced with excellent news that Prof. Matthias Keller is part of a team who have received major funding from UK Research and Innovation. The project, part of the QSNet Consortium, will utilise the work of Prof. Kellers ITCM team on a high precision molecular ion clock, which has the potential to achieve better accuracies compared to the best atomic clock to-date. Overall, the projects aim to demonstrate how quantum technologies could solve some of the greatest mysteries in fundamental physics.

2020 at a glance

• We round off the year in December with Juan Totero Gongora and colleagues from the EPic Lab having their paper published in Physical Review Letters: All Optical Two-Color Terahertz Emission from Quasi-2D Nonlinear Surfaces.
• Prof. Peter Kruger will be leading a project aimed at enhancing battery performance using quantum sensors. The project, funded by the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, will mark the first time quantum sensors are used as a solution in battery innovation, and is aligned with the Government’s 10-point plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
• Our Geonium Chip group, led by Dr Jose Verdu Galiana, has published two papers in October: Planar, Strong Magnetic Field Source for a Chip Ion Trap in Review of Scientific Instruments 91, and Coherent Coupling of a Trapped Electron to a Distant Superconducting Microwave Cavity in Applied Physics Letters 117.
• Prof. Matthias Keller's Ion Trap Cavity-QED and Molecular Physics group have been busy during September. Costas Christoforou and colleagues had their paper on Enhanced Ion-Cavity Coupling through Cavity Cooling in the Strong Coupling Regime published, in Nature Research Scientific Reports. Thomas Walker et al published Improving the Indistinguishability of Single Photons from an Ion-Cavity System in Physical Review A.
• We're delighted to see a paper by Dr Zak Romaszko et al of our Ion Quantum Technology group, published in Nature Review Physics Engineering of Microfabricated Ion Traps and Integration of Advanced On-chip Features. Zak gives an interview on his current work with Universal Quantum, and how close they are to building the first large-scale quantum computer.
• The Ion Quantum Technology group have had a breakthrough in the laboratory, by developing an algorithm which helps early quantum computers to perform calculations more efficiently.
• After months of preparation, Prof. Winfried Hensinger and Dr Sebastian Weidt launch their spin-out company Universal Quantum. Their goal to build the world's first large scale quantum computer has attrcated £3.6 million investment from some of the world's more impressive tech investors.
• Prof. Peter Kruger's research on the potential spread of a Covid second wave has been reported nationally It suggests that people outside of population centres such as London and New York may be worse affected due to lack of immunity in those areas.
• Prof. Winfried Hensinger talks to Quantum City about his work on quantum computing, what it could mean for everyday life, and what inspired him to become a quantum physicist.
• Congratulations to Juan Totero Gongora from our EPic Lab. He's been awarded a Leverhulme Early Careers Fellowship with his project 'Route to AI control of micro-comb lasers'.
• In our Quantum Systems and Devices Oyster Lab, Amruta Gadge and team were succesful in remotely establishing a Bose Einstein Condensate. This is a first for us, born out of lockdown, and having wider implications for remote lab control in terms of operating quantum technology in inaccessible environments.
• Researchers in our EPic Lab have developed the first non linear camera capable of capturing high-resolution images of the interior of solid objects. They have combined lasers, computers and terahertz (THz) waves to build a camera that sees 'unseen' details.
• Dr Alessia Pasquazi from our Emergent Photonics (EPic) Lab gives the first Register Lecture of the decade. Her research into whether portable atomic clocks can end UK dependence on GNSS, investigates the alternative to satellite signals.

2019 at a glance

• Raphaël Le Brun-Ricalens, doctoral researcher and PhD student in our Ion Quantum Technology Group, is featured in the Luxembourg National Research Fund's Spotlight on Young Researchers. He explains why he has joined the field at such an exciting time, why his Masters degree at Sussex got him hooked to enrol on our doctoral programme, and his future careers aspirations Spotlight on Young Researchers: Foni Raphaël Lebrun-Ricalens.
• Raphaël was interviewed for LadBible on the plausibility of the 'quantum realm' in Avengers: Endgame.Read the full article here (contains spoilers!) Physicist Evaluates Science Behind 'Quantum Realm' in Avengers: Endgame.
• Congratulations to Prof. Marco Peccianti on being awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant which will allow us to explore the commercial potential of the EPic Lab's research!
• Dr Alessia Pasquazi, Prof. Marco Peccianti and their colleagues from the EPic Lab discuss their latest research in this video Laser Cavity-Solitons Microcombs.