Photonics and quantum will be critical to maintaining the UK’s technological prowess
Photonics, the science and technology of light, underpins a vast array of applications that are crucial to modern society, including displays, medical devices, computer chips, and telecommunications. From optical microscopes to ultrafast lasers and infrared sensors, light-based technologies are ubiquitous. In essence, photonics relates to the generation, transmission, modulation, amplification and detection of light.
At Digital Catapult we continue to explore commercial applications for photonics technology, and as a result find application across a wide range of areas, including manufacturing, transport, defence, energy and, crucially, quantum technologies. The codevelopment of photonics and quantum will be critical to both technologies’ long-term success, as they are closely intertwined and allow new use-cases and applications to be trialled and tested.
The current state of play for photonics and quantum in the UK
Photonics has been highlighted in the UK Innovation Strategy as one of seven technology families of UK strength and opportunity, underscored by the £15.2 billion annual output. The UK is the second largest photonics manufacturer in Europe, and the ninth largest globally. Moreover, there are over 40 universities actively engaged in photonics research and development across the UK, and over 1,200 companies, demonstrating its strategic value to supporting industry.
As part of the Smart Nano NI consortium, led by Seagate Technology, Digital Catapult has run several programmes that have enabled companies to explore photonic technologies to enhance and enable industrial processes, particularly within manufacturing. The consortium shares specialised capabilities around nanomanufacturing and world-leading knowledge in photonics. The consortium is developing advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods to deliver new technologies. aims to establish an ecosystem of expertise in photonics, smart manufacturing and nanotechnology in Northern Ireland, growing the local economy, and allowing businesses to meet increased demand for more innovative and efficient manufacturing solutions.
A significant number of quantum technologies - across computing, communication and sensing - are underpinned by photonic components, including lasers, single photon detectors and waveguides. For example, quantum communication, employing photonic qubits, can leverage the low loss and well-established infrastructure of fibre optic networks to securely transmit data across vast distances.
Quantum photonic sensors include optically pumped magnetometers that offer the ultrahigh sensitivity for magnetic fields. This heightened sensitivity allows for the precise measurement of even extremely weak magnetic fields, which is crucial in various applications such as medical imaging, geological exploration, and navigation systems, further demonstrating both technologies’ strategic value. Moreover, components of quantum photonic computers can potentially operate at room temperature too. This presents significant potential and opportunity for the technology, demonstrating its connectivity and scalability - particularly with regards to chip-scale components.
The future of photonics lies in on-chip integration and quantum innovation
Integrated photonics represents a pivotal frontier in technological advancement, leveraging semiconductor technology and photonics to drive innovation in communication, computing, and sensing. By miniaturising optical components and integrating them onto chips, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) unlock a plethora of benefits, including enhanced performance, reduced footprint, and lower power consumption. These advancements are crucial not only for accelerating data transfer speeds but also for enabling transformative applications in quantum technologies, AI, biosensing, telecoms, encryption, and navigation. In the UK, companies are at the forefront of researching and developing photonic chips, harnessing their potential for both classical and quantum technologies.
The codevelopment of quantum and photonics promises to revolutionise industries and propel the UK to the forefront of global innovation. To fully capitalise on this momentum and to establish a robust photonic chip supply chain, close collaboration and partnerships across the design, manufacturing, testing, and integration stages are imperative.
By fostering these collaborations and strengthening ties with international partners, the UK can solidify its position as a leader in the photonics and quantum landscape, driving economic growth and technological advancement for years to come. This is something that we are working towards at Digital Catapult, exploring the applications of both technologies to unlock economic and investment opportunities, with the Quantum Data Centre of the Future and Smart Nano NI programmes accelerating innovation in this space.
Establishing the quantum data centre of the future
The Quantum Data Centre of Future is a ground-breaking research programme funded by Innovate UK’s ISCF, which aims to place a quantum computer securely in a data centre, ready to run quantum optimisation and quantum machine learning algorithms. The programme is investigating secure intra and inter data centre communications, using both Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post Quantum encryption schemes designed to be resistant to attacks from hostile actors, even actors armed with a large, fault tolerant, quantum computer.
These themes exploit the UK’s strengths in photonics and quantum technology and further demonstrate the value of converging both technologies to bolster the UK’s technological prowess on the global scale. Digital Catapult’s Quantum Technology Access Programme (QTAP) was part of the Quantum Data Centre of the Future, and demonstrated commercial applications of both technologies too.
Demonstrating success on the Quantum Technology Access Programme
QTAP was run by Digital Catapult to raise awareness of quantum computing, educate end users, and foster industry partnerships to drive the future adoption and commercialisation of quantum computing. The QTAP partners included ORCA Computing, Riverlane, BT, PQ Shield and KETs, and eleven industry participants including household names such as Rolls Royce, Airbus, the Port of Dover and UKAEA, with smaller SMEs joining the programme too. The participants learnt about quantum computing and then applied this knowledge to investigate optimisation and quantum machine learning use cases run on the ORCA PT-1 photonic computer.
The use cases investigated on the ORCA quantum computer included finding the combination of vehicles that gave the worst case deflection for a bridge deck, optimising traffic flow, pruning a Physics Inspired Neural Network to help fusion reactor design, minimising the cost and environmental impact of energy production, and optimisation of a courier’s routes (the Travelling Salesman Problem). Quantum machine learning was investigated to detect anomalies in shipment delay prediction, and nuclear reactor transients. The computing use cases were investigated on the ORCA PT-1 during the QTAP programme.
Photonic technologies will be the basis of new quantum computers, quantum safe communications and quantum sensors that will be relevant to a wide range of business applications. The UK is already home to a world leading photonics sector, as highlighted by the Smart Nano NI consortium, and an array of suppliers of quantum photonic technology, such as ORCA Computing and KETs, who specialise in QKD. It is important for the UK to nurture this industrial and research strength by continuing to invest in quantum photonics technology, and to help build a vibrant quantum photonics ecosystem through appropriate initiatives, like QTAP, that connect suppliers and end users, enabling the development of new technologies and de-risking their adoption.
To express an interest in joining a second QTAP or to learn more about our quantum work please email us at [email protected]. To learn more about our photonics work email [email protected].
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Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
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Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
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- [email protected]
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Rory Daniels
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.
Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.
Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.
This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.
- Email:
- [email protected]
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Authors
Cillian McPolin
Dr. Cillian McPolin is a senior photonics technologist at Digital Catapult, driving forward the adoption of photonics and nanotechnology. Cillian received his MSci and PhD degrees in physics from Queen’s University Belfast and King’s College London, respectively, before undertaking research at King’s and Imperial College London, and subsequently joining Digital Catapult. His publications cover research topics such as nanophotonic circuitry, nanoscale light sources, infrared photodetectors and ultrafast optical signal modulation. He is also a Visiting Scholar in the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s University Belfast. Cillian has spoken at a range of industry and academic events and conferences, including the CogX festival, Institute of Physics Conference, Photonics Europe conference and Smart Nanomaterials conference.
