May 28, 2024 | Webinar
Realizing photonic quantum technologies, such as an optical quantum computer or a quantum communication link between distant superconducting qubits, will require the development of novel photonic components. Monolithic silicon or silicon nitride photonic platforms are falling short with respect to the requirements of the quantum domain, and it is envisioned that a hybrid solution is needed. In this talk, Christian Haffner of IMEC shortly discusses what hybrid solutions the silicon photonic platform can offer in terms of detectors, sources, and modulators. His primary focus lies on the electro-optical modulator covering the requirements that the quantum world enforces. He compares the classical and quantum theoretical framework, and sketches out what performance metrics a quantum electro-optical modulator needs to fulfill.
Engineers, researchers, and manufacturers who are interested in how integrated photonics can advance quantum technologies. Those working with silicon photonics in industries such as telecommunications, quantum computing, and sensing and detecting.
Christian Haffner is a principal member of technical staff and was awarded the first tenure track position at IMEC. He is leading a research group that explores the limits of integrated electro-optical devices in the classical and quantum domain. This research is supported by an ERC starting grant (2022). In 2019 he was accepted to the 5-year Branco-Weiss Fellowship program. Haffner performed his postdoctoral research on nano-scale opto-mechanical switches at NIST, Gaithersburg and ETH, Zurich. He received his doctorate from ETH Zurich in 2018, for which he was awarded the ETH Medal and Hans-Eggenberger Prize. His doctoral research was on exploring plasmonics as an active electro-optic device technology in the group of Juerg Leuthold. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany in 2012 and in 2013, respectively. He was ranked first in his masterbatch. During his study, he was awarded a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. His research has been published in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Photonics, Science, and Nano Letters. News outlets such the OSA’s Optics and Photonics News and the IEEE Spectrum have featured his publications.