There is huge worldwide interest in exploring and exploiting the quantum nature of light. Particular areas of opportunity include quantum information processing, unconditionally secure information transport via quantum cryptography, ultracold atom manipulation, Bose Einstein condensation and quantum metrology. Scottish excellence in this area is substantial, wide-ranging and complementary across departments, so that a tremendous opportunity exists for substantial added value via co-ordination and pooling of resources, aided by new SUPA-supported personnel with cross-institution interests .
Quantum Information is an interdisciplinary field encompassing a wide range of theoretical and experimental areas. It is a major growth area in physics where the community in Scotland is well-known and strongly placed to make significant contributions. Our strength and future plans are concentrated on optical or “photonic” implementations of the fundamental building blocks in quantum communications and quantum information processing. Experimental work on communications and entanglement (Glasgow, St Andrews), quantum key distribution (Heriot-Watt) and optimised measurements (Strathclyde) is strongly underpinned by world class theory at Strathclyde.