Envisaging a quantum future

Envisaging a quantum future

Reported by Patrick McAlary, Policy Research Coordinator, CSaP

Dr Hayaatun Sillem (CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering) was in conversation with Dr Helena Knowles (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge), Dr Steve Brierley (CEO, Riverlane), and Dr Carolina Feijao (Senior Policy Adviser, Royal Academy of Engineering) at the CSaP Annual Conference to unpack what quantum technologies look like now and where they could go in the future.

Dr Sillem explained that ‘quantum technologies’ refer to those that exploit the principles of quantum mechanics to develop novel applications beyond the capabilities of classical physics. Quantum 1.0 included things like lasers, atomic clocks, and superconductors, but we are moving into Quantum 2.0 which involves leveraging superposition and entanglement for things like quantum computing, quantum networks, and quantum sensing and imaging. A key thing to keep in mind is the focus on quantum technologies (plural).

The UK has had a leading position within this space in part due to investments in the underpinning R&D over the past decade, however, we exist in a dynamic global landscape and other nations are developing their own national strategies and infrastructure and emerging as players in the quantum race. The question then is where does the UK want to go next and what is its level of ambition?

Applications of quantum

Dr Knowles shed light on how quantum sensing can be applied to life sciences and healthcare. She reitetrated that there is more to quantum technologies than quantum computers and there are a huge number of applications in the healthcare space including patient diagnostics and imaging inside a human body.

"It may sound counterintuitive that you can take these quite sensitive quantum systems and you can apply them to something as messy as a living system.”

Tools that utilise quantum sensing are being developed for brain and heart imaging and quantum technologies are being used to develop lateral flow tests that are five orders of magnitude more sensitive than the current standard. Drawing on her own work, Dr Knowles signaled advances being made in radiotherapy which is currently used as a blunt tool that can negatively impact healthy tissue near cancers. The aim is to create nano scale high spatial resolution imaging that can target tumors directly with less collateral damage.

Another big area for quantum sensors is defence: they can be used to look for electromagnetic fields which can help detect submarine motion. There are quantum imaging techniques that allow the user to look around corners which could also have interesting applications. Significantly, while GPS is easily disturbed, there are quantum versions of this kind of technology that do not rely on satellites and are fully contained which could help protect against navigational interference.

Quantum computing

According to Dr Birerley, exploiting the power of atoms to perform computation could be a huge game changer for understanding nature and exploiting some of what nature does that humans struggle to replicate. A huge investment in quantum technologies by the UK Government and others helped loosen the equipment bottleneck and facilitated the advancement of research, but now the scarcity is in terms of the people.

One major shift has been the development of a mature supply chain where companies are building specific components for quantum computers and this is speeding up the entire process. What this has meant on the ground is akin to Moore’s law where over the past 20 years where there has been a doubling in the ability to control individual qubits (a basic unit of quantum information) every 12–18 months. Remarkably, this has happened across qubit types. Rather than a specific qubit type taking the lead, there is still a broad field of qubits that are based on atoms or electrons or photons and it remains to be seen which will yield the winning approach.

Dr Brierley explained that the biggest challenge facing quantum computing is error correction. As it stands, the best quantum computers can perform on the order of 100 operations before errors in the device overwhelm computation, but useful applications will require millions and billions of error free operations. This can be achieved by adding active error correction technology and the UK mission on quantum computing is quite explicit in this regard: 1,000,000 error free operations in 2028. This will be achieved by scaling up qubit numbers and it seems like it is a reachable goal (across different qubit types). This begs the question what will the UK do with this new capability? While the journey is by no means over, we will be able to simulate and solve the equations of quantum mechanics at least in small systems and one can envisage being able to simulate interesting properties of materials.

The UK is the leader in quantum error correction and the reason for this is not just the initial investment made by the UK Government in 2014, but it is because the UK is a leader in chip design which demands similar skills and infrastructure to error correction.

"The opportunity for the UK is not to win 100% of quantum computing, that is not realistic. But to win some of the key components in this emerging global supply chain in the same way that countries did in the emergence of the semiconductor industry.”

The UK's quantum infrastructure

Dr Feijao pointed to an independent review that was commissioned by DSIT and published by the Royal Academy of Engineering looking at the UK’s quantum infrastructure and where infrastructure investments should be prioritised to advance the sector in the coming decade. Dr Feijao explained how the UK had been successful at establishing a quantum research base and creating a thriving ecosystem of start-ups. However, the key warning to take away is that continued success in this space cannot be taken for granted: there is a window of opportunity for the UK to seize the moment and it is closing fast. One issue is that the UK’s open access infrastructure is not up to scratch, particularly when it comes to commercialisation: academic settings can only do so much in this space (they are not factories) while start-ups and SMEs are not equipped to facilitate the investment required for commercialisation. Given that quantum is an emerging technology any investment carries a deal of risk and this is where government intervention is vital as it helps de-risk the technologies which will then attract private sector investment.

However, to keep the UK in the game, there needs to be further investments beyond quantum that focuses on advanced manufacturing capabilities that are relevant for many quantum technologies and to embed resilience. Dr Feijao argued that there also needs to be greater collaboration not only between the standard trinity of industry, academic, and government, but also cross-sectoral and international collaboration as the UK is not going to be able to lead in everything. All of this requires more investment in the enablers that allow infrastructure to be successful such as skills, standards, and regulation to ensure that advances are made in a sustainable and responsible fashion.

"To be clear, we are not just talking about upgrades to infrastructure, the real catalytic opportunity for the UK is to be bold in the decision making and make investments in the sort of game changing infrastructure that could really allow us to have a niche in this sector.”

Dr Feijao noted that the review provides a range of options in terms of new capabilities for UK quantum infrastructure, but it remains the case that this is not cheap and strategic decision-making and prioritisation will, therefore, be fundamental.

"My main takeaway from doing this work is that the biggest risk right now for the UK is the risk of not doing anything at all.”