Grant: Canada Research Chairs

There is a huge worldwide effort to harness the elusive properties of quantum physics to accelerate information processing, improve the simulation of complex systems and push the sensitivity of detectors of many sorts to their ultimate limits. Succeeding in this would provide breakthroughs for example in the optimization of transport networks, the discovery of new pharmaceutic drugs or the early diagnosis of health problems. Among these efforts, a particular one is devoted to generating electromagnetic waves which properties go beyond those of classical physics. Such waves, for example in the microwave domain, could be used for quantum information encoding or processing, and to increase the sensitivity of measurements by lowering the minimal noise added by the measuring apparatus. The idea behind the present research program on Quantum Microwave Radiation is to explore a path towards the generation of quantum microwave electromagnetic fields based on exploiting the quantum behaviour of electrons in conducting nanostructures at very low temperature. Of particular interest are the random fluctuations of electrical current, which properties can be controlled by applying well engineered time-dependent voltages. By doing so one can decrease the electronic noise below its value at zero temperature at certain times. The resulting electromagnetic field bears the quantum properties seeked for useful applications. We will focus our efforts to the generation of ultra-broadband quantum microwaves and microwaves with peculiar correlations. For this, and in collaboration with other research groups from Canada and abroad, we will, in my state-of-the-art laboratory at Université de Sherbrooke, fabricate nano-devices, set up experimental tools to analyze the signals they generate and develop theoretical approaches to comprehend and be able to predict them. This will require deepening our understanding of electron quantum statistics in circuits, thus providing advances both in basic quantum science and its application to quantum electronics.