Johan Kolvik, Quantum Technology

Discussion leader: Nils Johan Engelsen, Assistant Professor, Quantum Technology

Abstract: Signal transduction is a crucial part of communication technology within both classical and quantum applications. Today’s high demands in signal manipulation, storage and distribution call for optimized material properties commonly accessed only in narrow signal frequency bands. Thus, loss- and noiseless signal frequency transduction opens up ways to harness the strengths of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. A particularly interesting application is quantum computation with superconducting qubits which excel at fast operations but suffer in long-range connectivity. In this half-way seminar, PhD student Johan Kolvik presents his and colleagues’ work on piezo-optomechanical transducers. This approach has recently seen several orders of magnitude increase in efficiency, but still suffer from optical absorption induced noise. The work centers around release-free optomechanical crystals with appealing optomechaincal performance and enhanced thermal properties. Using this novel design, we aim to break the trade-off between efficiency and noise; enabling microwave-to-optics transduction for use in both quantum computation and sensing.