Lighting the Way for Quantum Innovation How Nanophotonics is
Marina Radulaski, Ph.D. Associate Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering UC Davis
Reshaping Quantum Information Science
By Sarah Colwell
Irfan Siddiqi, Ph.D. Professor Physics UC Berkeley
QUANTUM COMPUTING
Less than 15 years ago, when UC Davis Associate Professor Marina Radulaski, Ph.D. was a graduate student, senior faculty advised her to change her research focus. Their concern? “Quantum computers won’t be ready soon enough” for her to conduct her research and graduate in time, Radulaski recalled. Fortunately, Radulaski didn’t listen. She immersed herself in the field, working in the lab of a future Nobel Laureate. By the time she earned her Ph.D. in 2011, Lockheed Martin had already purchased the first commercially available quantum computer. Today, as a leader in quantum nanophotonics, she is collaborating with Irfan Siddiqi from UC Berkeley—one of the foremost experts in quantum nanoelectronics—to unlock the full potential of quantum technologies. With support from the UC Noyce Initiative (UCNI), their project, Simulation of Quantum Optical Phenomena on a Superconducting Quantum Computer, merges two distinct yet complementary fields: quantum nanophotonics and superconducting quantum circuits. The goal is to determine whether superconducting quantum computers can be used to model and design quantum photonic devices, paving the way for breakthroughs in quantum computing and networking. Quantum computers have the potential to completely transform how we solve some of society’s biggest challenges. For example, in 2019, Google’s quantum computer performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years. “We are doing all this so that the next generation of hardware for quantum computers can have better components that could help us transmit information more securely across long distances," Radulaski said, "or even create a quantum internet.”
74 Impact Report 2023 - 24 | UC NI
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