Adaptive quantum optics

Home sweet home! After his 6-month internship abroad at Harvard University, Frank Somhorst returned to the University of Twente. This internship resulted in successfully completing his master's degree in Applied Physics, specializing in adaptive quantum optics, which he proudly obtained cum laude.

Social robots with negotiating qualities. A ‘dedicated’ glass fiber connection between Twente and Münster for testing quantum secure data transport between both universities and cities. Using vibrating socks to take away movement blocks of Parkinson patients. These are three very different, but all highly relevant, research projects that received a so-called Strategic Collaboration Grant of the Universities of Twente (UT) and Münster (WWU). Out of six pitches, the jury selected these three projects. In total, fifteen proposals were submitted.

Researcher Jelmer Renema of the University of Twente is a member of a Chinese research team that developed a new photonics-based quantum computer showing quantum advantage – it can solve problems a supercomputer can’t. Compared to its predecessor, the new quantum computer shows lower losses and can measure more photons, leading to a new record speed of a trillion squared compared to brute force supercomputing. Renema contributed to this by introducing better theoretical understanding. The results of the ‘Jiuzhang 2.0’ computer are published in Physical Review Letters.

Could photons, light particles, really condense and how will this ‘liquid light’ behave then? Condensed light is an example of a ‘Bose-Einstein condensate’: the theory has been there for 100 years, but University of Twente researchers now demonstrate the effect even at room temperature. For this, they created a microsize mirror with channels in which photons actually ‘flow’ like a liquid. In these channels, the photons try to stay together as group by choosing the path that leads to the lowest losses and thus, in a way, demonstrate ‘social behaviour’. The results are published in Nature Communications.