QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

The group works on theoretical problems in quantum transport. Central research topics include quantum engineering with dynamic single-electron sources as well as electrical noise and fluctuations in nano-scale conductors. We are also interested in correlations and entanglement in many-body systems as well as the statistical mechanics of small quantum devices.

QCD group carries out experimental research on silicon and superconducting quantum nanoelectronics. The main research goals include engineered quantum environments, single-electron pumps, and microwave photon detectors. In addition, QCD is known for its work on monopoles in ultracold atomic gases.

• micro- and nanomechanical resonators near the quantum ground state of moving objects
• superconducting junctions and resonators

QuAmpere aims at further developing the best existing concepts of SET pumps (single-electron transport devices needed to control the number of electrons flowing in a unit time interval) and to combine them with single-electron detectors to create highly accurate quantum current sources, to be used as current standards in the future.  Furthermore, the necessary associated instrumentation is developed.  The key objective of the project is the implementation of capabilities and methodologies for the realisation and dissemination of the new SI base unit definition for the ampere.

We now have the ability to build electronic devices at the nanoscale and operate them at millikelvin temperatures, and this has opened up the possibility to design, operate and utilise devices based on quantum physics. Quantum devices have been used in electrical metrology for decades and now nanoscale single-electron current sources are about to take their place in the realization of the ampere.

The superconducting quantum computer has very recently reached the theoretical thresholds for fault-tolerant universal quantum computing and a quantum annealer based on superconducting quantum bits, qubits, is already commercially available. However, several fundamental questions on the way to efficient large-scale quantum computing have to be answered: qubit initialization, extreme gate accuracy, and quantum-level power consumption.

The past couple of years have witnessed the rise of on-chip quantum optics. This has been enabled by the fabrication of high-finesse superconducting resonators made out of coplanar waveguides, and by the coupling of these resonators to superconducting quantum bits, qubits. This so-called circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) has proven superior compared with the standard cavity QED with photons coupled to atoms in three-dimensional space.

The project addresses quantum devices in hybrid systems formed using carbon nanotubes, graphene, and 3He superfluid, all with particular topological characteristics. Topological properties of these non-trivial materials can be drastically modified by introducing defects or interfaces into them, like single layer graphene into superfluid helium, boron nitride between graphene sheets, carbon nanotubes in 3He superfluid, or misfit dislocation layers into HOPG graphite.

Our expertise is to fabricate various nano-electronic devices using our £120M clean room complex, the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre (http://www.southampton-nanofab.com) opened in 2009, one of the best university-based fabrication facilities in Europe. The cleanroom supports cutting-edge research activities in nano-electronics, photonics, and fibre optics. The full CMOS front-end and backend process tools are available for 6-inch wafers.