Grant: Canada Excellence Research Chairs

Quantum Information Processing (QIP) is a new technological paradigm that uses the laws of quantum physics to manipulate information. Quantum physics poses the fundamental limits to information processing. By building quantum computers, quantum communication systems, quantum sensors and actuators, we effectively reach the ultimate limits in power and accuracy. For many tasks this quantum limit far exceeds the capacities of devices that are constrained to function by the classical laws of physics. The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo (UW) brings together scientists and engineers in an international center of excellence for QIP research. Professor Cory?s addition to IQC/UW will provide the centre with a path to realizing useful quantum processors. The next step in the development of quantum information processing is to engineer practical quantum sensors and actuators. These will be the tools for navigating and controlling the microscopic quantum world. They will form the building blocks for future quantum computers. Professor Cory?s research interests are to develop and implement the engineering necessary to realize these first generation quantum devices. Over the past few years his group has demonstrated quantum actuators in which coherent control of photons or electron spins are used to have coherent control over a larger pool of nuclear spins. They have shown that such control can be improved through quantum error correction, and they have introduced the concepts of entanglement-assisted metrology as a means of employing quantum entanglement to improve the sensitivity and precision of a measurement. At IQC Professor Cory will build a unique experimental facility to design, fabricate and deploy quantum devices. A novel feature of his work has been to realize that QIP can provide immediate societal benefits. During this project we will develop new methods for interferometry, single spin measurement and gyroscopes based on QIP.