Grant: Alliance Grants

Emerging quantum technologies will have a transformational impact on society and fuel economic growth, due of the wide range of applications that they enable. These include data security (guaranteed by the rules of quantum mechanics), optical sensing of single proteins and viruses, and quantum simulations that are expected to aid in the discovery of new medicines and materials. An essential component for these technologies is based on light particles, called photons, and in particular the need to create entangled photon states "on demand", which are photons that connect to each other in a way that they behave as a pair, including correlations over large distances. The ability to create entangled photons on demand is still a major unsolved challenge, however, in part as light interactions with only a few photons are intrinsically very weak.This proposal will address and solve this critical challenge, by bringing together Canadian experts in the fabrication, growth, quantum measurements and simulations of solid-state quantum circuits. The team will develop fully integrated semiconductor-based quantum platforms that combine photonic waveguides with engineerable "artificial atoms" termed quantum dots. Combining quantum dots and waveguide photons yields a powerful platform that can create delicate quantum correlations, on-demand, that in turn will enable massively entangled states, photon by photon, all at the ultrafast speeds of light-based technologies. Concurrently, the proposal will develop new, scalable all-optical techniques to stabilize the quantum systems and to shield them from quantum noise and losses that are inherent to their semiconductor environments. We will deliver practical and best-in-class photonic quantum devices that can be immediately exploited by Canadian companies and industry.