QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

Location

Our School of Math and Physics and our Institute  of Cosmology and Gravitation at University of Portsmouth are looking for outstanding female candidates for Physics PhD projects under the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Funding Scheme. In particular, our newly established Quantum Science and Technology Hub (QSTH) at the University of Portsmouth is welcoming applications in the broad areas of quantum physics and quantum technologies.

Please find more information about our research effort in our website (still in progress) here 

https://www.port.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-groups/quantum-science-and-technology-hub

and below some examples of projects that we are offering.

PhD project title: Multi-photon quantum computational supremacy

Demonstration of quantum computational supremacy in particular quantum schemes (e.g. boson sampling and the recent Google experimental demonstration) have attracted a lot of interest while we are still working towards the development of a full operational quantum computer.

The project aims at developing novel multiphoton interference architectures demonstrating quantum computational hardness based on multiphoton interference with realistic and scalable resources as well as to develop novel techniques for entangled networks, quantum walks and quantum network characterization. In this way quantum computational supremacy could be also used in useful applications, including quantum simulations.

Indicative references:

S. Laibacher and V. Tamma, Phys. Rev. A 98, 053829 (2018) (and references within)

PhD project title: Secure and efficient long-range quantum communication

The project aims at developing (a) encryption techniques based on integrated multiphoton interferometers which, differently from current encryption schemes, even quantum computers could not break; (b) techniques suitable for long range communication immune to turbulence, either in free space or exploiting the optical fibre infrastructure already employed for classical communications (e.g. 5G-UK). This will profoundly impact communication security of consumers, enterprises and governments. 

Indicative references:

Y. S. Ihn et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 263603 (2017) (and references within)

Z. Huang et al., arXiv:1905.03013 (and references within)

PhD project title: Developing quantum sensing for environmental and biomedical applications

This project aims at developing novel sensors enabling quantum-enhanced precision with scalable quantum resources (e.g. squeezed state sources, interferometric techniques based on correlation measurements). We will investigate applications in a subset of: high-precision navigation, characterization of biological tissues for medical diagnosis, air quality and environmental sensing.  

Indicative references:

 D. Gatto et al. Phys. Rev. Research 1, 032024(R) (2019) (and references within)