Quantum Technologies and Computation

More than a century of development of quantum physics, has enabled of many types of devices using quantum phenomena. Currently, three main directions of its practical applications can be distinguished:

• Quantum sensing, or the application of quantum phenomena (most often entanglement and interference) to improve the quality, resolution, and accuracy of various types of sensors.
• Quantum security, which can be divided into two parts. First is the building of security features of the existing classical infrastructure and algorithms resistant to "quantum attacks" - the so-called "post-quantum era." Second is the building of security systems using quantum methods, such as quantum teleportation.
• Quantum computation leading to the construction of quantum computers. Currently, the technology is at the stage of the so-called "NISQ era" (Noisy, Intermediate Scale Quantum).

The OTK has the merQlab research center at the Department of Graphics, Computer Vision and Digital Systems. The head of the lab is Dr. Kamil Wereszczyński. It includes two laboratories. The first, located in Gliwice (AEI building, p. 516), is equipped with optical equipment necessary for the implementation of experiments in quantum optics. The second, under construction in Katowice, in the premises of a new branch of the AEI department, is planned for the construction of a photonic quantum computer. The Quantum Informatics Scientific Circle, whose supervisor is Dr. Henryk Josinski, Prof. SUT, supports merQlab's activities and promotes the field of OTK in the academic community and outside.

Projects, carried out within the OTK area:

• „Non-standard data and image processing - from nonlinear Optics to Quantum computing” – OptiQ, implemented under „Horizon. 1.2 – MSCA Staff Exchanges 2021”, doi: 10.3030/101080374. please visit the project websiteThe director is Dr. Krzysztof, Prof. SUT.
• "Decoherence-insensitive qubits in quantum optics," carried out within the framework of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education's "Student Research Circles Create Innovations" program. Link to the project website coming soon.

Within OTK is caried out extensive cooperation with domestic as well as foreign centers:

• AIT (Austria) a group that researches entangled photons and produces their sources, with personal ties to Prof. Zeilinger's group - winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.
• QuiX Quantum (Netherlands) the producer of photonic quantum computers.
• SpaSys (Luksemburg) Space Engineering Group at the University of Luxembourg, whom we are collaborating with on research to adapt the solutions under study to work in space.
• SBA, Nexera (Austria), Envelo (Polska) – the cooperation in Cyber and Quantum security.
• Boson Energy (Luxembourg, Sweden, Israel) – a company in the GreenTech area, conducting, among other things, research into chemical reactors that produce pure hydrogen from garbage.
• PIM MWSiA (Polska)– A clinic with which we are jointly planning research on quantum microscopes that allow visualization of biological preparations with nanometer accuracy.