BBQ Lab

I am very pleased to share that I have been awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The €3M QUEST project will harness the enormous potential of structured quantum light in space and time to develop new quantum technologies for the efficient generation, distribution, and measurement of entanglement. We will be advertising PhD and Postdoc positions associated with this grant soon. Please register your interest on our openings page if you would like to be notified when these positions are open.

Heriot-Watt press release: https://www.hw.ac.uk/news/2025/major-european-grant-boosts-quantum-research-at-heriot-watt-university
ERC press release: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2025-consolidator-grants-results

What will the quantum networks of the future look like? How do you route and teleport entanglement to multiple users in a reconfigurable manner?

In our paper published in Nature Photonics this month, we show how light scattering inside a simple optical fibre can be harnessed to program complex multi-mode optical circuits. We then use these circuits to implement a completely reconfigurable quantum network interconnecting eight users with entanglement!

Looking sharp in the lab

Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-025-01806-x
Press release: https://www.hw.ac.uk/news/2025/shop-bought-cable-powers-quantum-breakthrough-2
Physics World Story: https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-photonics-network-passes-a-scaling-up-milestone/

A big welcome to Samuel Donachie, who joins us for his PhD from Paris, France! Samuel obtained his Masters in Physics from La Sorbonne University in Paris, during which he was with us for a summer internship back in 2024. Samuel is part of the new Applied Quantum Technologies Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) hosted at Heriot-Watt, Glasgow, and Strathclyde Universities. He is currently working on designing large-scale quantum circuits for structured light. Interestingly, Samuel is also the first (half) Scottish member of our group! Here’s to many exciting years of quantum research ahead 🙂

Out now in Physical Review Research “Certifying high-dimensional quantum channels” demonstrates the efficient characterization of high-dimensional quantum channels, a key ingredient for future quantum communication technologies. Sophie adapted and developed witnesses from quantum states and their entanglement, to witness the quality of large quantum channels.

https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/bwd5-wx7j
https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15880

Many congratulations to Miguel who recently won a first-year poster award at the Heriot-Watt EPS Postgraduate Research Day!

Miguel presented his work on “Characterization of high-dimensional quantum channels in complex media” to all our colleagues and friends at Heriot-Watt, immediately drawing crowds and dazzling everyone! We only advise that he does not spend all his prize money on beer, unless it’s for the rest of the group!