Exploration of European Facilities to support research into Materials for Quantum

Richard Curry, Co-I of the Materials for Quantum Network (M4QN) recently visited a number of labs in Europe as part of an International Exchange Award.

Richard’s was first stop the University of Jyväskylä (JYU) in Finland where he visited the Ion Beam Facility and also the Nanoscience Centre. Whilst at JYU, Richard explored the potential for UK access to the facilities and also held discussions on solid-state quantum computing. In doing so, he gathered information on a number of things including Finnish investment in QT and international collaboration; insight into the solid-state programme being developed (led by an ex Australian UNSW researcher); and discussed applications of QT in fundamental physics, focusing on sensing, specifically nuclear physics from the ISOLDE programme at CERN.

The next stop on the trip was the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Institute in Germany where Richard explored the focused ion beam applications for quantum technologies, gave an invited talk and held discussions around opportunities for EU Horizon collaboration. From this visit, the development of focused ion beam tools and sources, specifically for QT were discussed. Orsay, a company in France, are developing a system to compete with the UK Q-One tool. The visit ended with an agreement that both sides would look for further networking opportunities/funding to connect communities.

The final stop of the trip was to the European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) in Dolní Brežany, just outside Prague, Czech Republic. Here, Richard toured the facilities which have quantum technology research applications whilst discussing the capabilities and capacity for UK access in light of STFC budget concerns.