University of Amsterdam Scores Success with Two Projects Awarded in NGF Quantum Technology Programme

The National Growth Fund programme Quantum Technology, carried out by NWO in collaboration with Quantum Delta NL, has awarded 19 projects with grants totaling 10.4 million euros. Two of the projects, ‘Quantum-enhanced sensing of quantum chemistry and interactions’ and ‘Computing with qudits’, will be carried out by UvA researchers.

Quantum-enhanced sensing of quantum chemistry and interactions

Quantum technology allows researchers to probe physical systems at unprecedented levels of accuracy. In this project, Rene Gerritsma (UvA-IoP) and his collaborators will use quantum-enhanced sensing to probe quantum chemistry and interactions between individual atoms and ions at extremely low temperatures. The results will help them understand the processes at play in ultra-cold chemistry and will answer the question whether it is possible to combine atomic and ionic quantum computers in a single platform.

Computing with qudits

While quantum computers offer unprecedented opportunities for speeding up certain types of computations, their development remains very challenging. Maris Ozols (UvA-CWI) and Florian Schreck (UvA-IoP) propose to take advantage of existing but unused internal structures of quantum systems, such as individual atoms, for quantum computation and studies of fundamental theories of Nature. They will develop new algorithms to achieve this and test them with one of the leading platforms for quantum computing, an array of neutral atoms cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero.