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Ultracold molecules poised to compute and simulate

A CQT team led by Kai Dieckmann has pioneered a technique to make ultracold molecules with unprecedented efficiency – and their next step could be turning the molecules into qubits or simulating the physics of phenomena such as a new form of localisation. “The current result is the outcome of many years of effort. We found our own unique, very original pathway to transition the molecules via an excited state into the ground state,” says Kai.

Two states of QCamp for pre-university students

June is the month for QCamp, our annual outreach camp on quantum technologies. This year, QCamp came in two states for pre-university students. In addition to our usual five-day QCamp, which ran from 10 June to 14 June, we held a one-day Flash QCamp on 19 June to cater for the large number of students applying. In total, 38 students from 19 junior colleges and polytechnics in Singapore were selected to join QCamp, and another 65 students joined Flash QCamp.

Singapore announces National Quantum Strategy

Singapore has launched a new National Quantum Strategy (NQS) to strengthen its position as a leading hub in the development and deployment of quantum technologies. Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Mr Heng Swee Keat announced the NQS in his Opening Address at Asia Tech x Summit on 30 May 2024. Funded by NRF, NQS will see close to S$300 million being invested over five years.

A national research centre in quantum technologies

The Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) has some 220 staff and students doing research into the foundations of quantum physics and the ways quantum physics enables new technologies. Established in 2007, CQT is hosted at the National University of Singapore and also has staff at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Nanyang Technological University, and the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Vehicles routed with efficient use of qubits

CQT researchers and their collaborators have devised an approach to make efficient use of qubits for the ‘vehicle routing problem’. The team, led by CQT Principal Investigator Dimitris Angelakis, succeeded in going beyond the usual problem sizes possible on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. They formulated the problems based on realistic shipping scenarios provided by contacts at ExxonMobil, the multinational oil and gas corporation.

Single atom surprisingly chill after laser treatment

CQT researchers Chow Chang Hoong, Ng Boon Long, Vindhiya Prakash and Christian Kurtsiefer find that an established cooling method is unexpectedly effective for neutral atoms in an optical trap. In a paper in Physical Review Research, which is highlighted as an Editor’s Suggestion, they detail how they demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency cooling for an optically trapped single neutral Rubidium atom.

On 7 June, the United Nations approved a resolution that 2025 will be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. CQT and the Institute of Physics Singapore are partners of the initiative.

Meet Nayanthara Prathap! After joining Singapore’s inaugural Quantum Bootcamp last year, Nayanthara is now a research intern working on quantum algorithms.

Novel solid-state device offers single photons on demand

The group of CQT Principal Investigator Gao Weibo and their collaborators are the first to achieve near-unity quantum efficiency in 2D single photon emitters. They report their results in Nature Photonics. The team’s novel approach reached a quantum efficiency of 76.4% on average and more than 90% for some emitters, approaching what is known as ‘unity quantum efficiency’ of 100%.