Military researchers ask industry for new ways of controlling quantum materials for computing and sensors
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are asking industry to find ways of using engineered light-matter coupling to control or enhance quantum materials for future quantum computing devices that enable quantum enhanced sensing and information processing.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued a solicitation last week (DARPA-EA-24-01-03) for the QUAntum Materials Engineering using eLEctrOmagNetic fields (QUAMELEON) project.
Optical tools such as high-finesse cavities can enhance interactions among quantum materials to control quantum degrees of freedom of individual atoms in cavity quantum electrodynamics, DARPA researchers say.
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For example, cavity-enhanced light-matter coupling with cold atoms has been known to control photon transport and induce a new supersolid quantum phase of matter.
Applying precision optical tools to condensed matter systems may help unlock optically enhanced materials for quantum computing, researchers say. Engineered light-matter coupling, moreover, also could create or enhance phases of matter including superconductivity, ferroelectricity, and magnetism. Light matter coupling also could modify semiconductor exciton physics for quantum information device applications.
QUAMELEON seeks to push the boundaries of optical control of solid-state materials, and change material properties with electromagnetic fields at the few-photon level.
Of particular interest are systems where engineered light-matter coupling can enhance the inter-particle interactions and correlations in a material, researchers say. The objective is to study condensed matter systems where the coherent interaction between light at the few-photon level and matter results in new physics that could apply to quantum information devices.
These kinds of quantum information systems could include quantum computing, quantum-enhanced sensors, light sources or detectors, transducers, and quantum emulators.
Companies interested should submit abstracts no later than 3 June 2024 to the DARPA submission website at https://baa.darpa.mil. Email questions or concerns to [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/448e4bc8dc154934a114ed7b06342a50/view.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
