The Quantum Engineering and Design (Q.E.D) Unit explores the design and system engineering of future quantum technologies with the aim to provide a path from today’s theoretical concepts to their real-world implementation.

The last century saw the discovery of quantum mechanics which are a set of principles including superposition and entanglement describing physical reality at the microscopic level. While superposition can be observed in ordinary waves, entanglement has no such classical analog. As such quantum physics allows a new paradigm for the processing of information.

The focus in our unit is associated with three broad overlapping areas: hybrid quantum systems and their applications,  the design of quantum network technologies and distributed quantum computation.

Hybrid quantum systems and their applications

Over the last quarter century, quantum protocols and tasks have been realized in a variety of physical systems, including photons, atoms, ions, spins, quantum circuits, etc. Those physical systems however limit what protocls/tasks can be performed. Hybrid quantum systems are seen as a way to design composite quantum systems with the properties one desires. The hybridization of these disparate quantum systems should allow one to design new properties into our system (properties not present before) or exploit and enhance the best properties of the individual subsystems while suppressing the detrimental ones they have. In our units we explore:
•    The design of hybrid systems whose properties have no natural analog.
•    New technological applications associated with those hybrid systems.

Design of quantum network technologies

It is already well established that the principles of quantum mechanics will allow a future quantum internet that connects a wide variety of quantum devices together in a coherent and secure fashion. At its core, quantum repeaters will be a critical part in a similar fashion to the importance of repeaters in today’s telecommunications internet. Given the inherent differences between classical and quantum physics, it is essential to establish how a quantum internet will function including how we route information as well as the functionality quantum repeaters will need to provide. This will include the seamless integration of both quantum and classical communication resources. One’s considerations need to  go far beyond quantum key distribution and instead focus on a true network of connected quantum devices, including computers and sensors. In this theme we explore:
•    Designs of small and large scale robust quantum networks
•    Early use models of quantum networks including edge and fog computing
•    Quantum network encoding

Distributed Quantum Computation

It is now well established that almost all quantum computing technologies, ranging from superconducting circuits to ion traps to quantum dots exhibit technological limitations on the number of qubits that can be facbricated onto a single monolicitic chip. Distributed quanutm computation  offers an elegant solution where  multiple smaller quantum processors are linked through a quantum network – creating a more powerful quantum computing cluster. In our units we explore:
•    Models for distributed quantum computation and the associated network requirements.
•    Quantum device modelling