On Thursday 27 May 5.30pm, we will hold our casual French Lab meeting: AFTER LAB!

On this occasion, Christian Miniatura, Director of the International Research Laboratory MajuLab (MajuLab is an IRL involving the following institutions, CNRS, Université Côte d’Azur, Sorbonne Université, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore). He is also visiting research Professor for the Centre for Quantum Technologies at NUS since 2008. Christian Miniatura will discuss the Era of Quantum 2.0 and Majulab.

Quantum physics is the theory that underlies the fundamental properties of Nature. It arose gradually at the turn of the 20th century to explain experimental observations which could not be reconciled with the existing prevailing (classical) physical theories of the times: black-body radiation problem, photoelectric effect, etc. These early attempts to understand microscopic phenomena, now known as the “old quantum theory”, led to the full development of the theoretical body and fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics in the mid-1920s. With it came a technology Era dubbed Quantum 1.0 where important advances like the transistor, semiconductors, computers devices or the laser (to cite a few) were developed and changed our societies.

The Quantum 1.0 Era made use of a key feature of quantum systems: the wave nature of individual physical objects and superposition of quantum states. In the Eighties, it became gradually clear that another important feature of quantum systems, entanglement, could be also used to develop the next generation of quantum devices. Entanglement is in fact the quintessential feature of quantum physics and what makes it unique compared to other theories. Within this so-called Quantum 2.0 Era, quantum-secured communication schemes have been developed and the notion of the quantum bit, or qubit, opened the route to the development of the first working prototypes of quantum computers.

During my talk I will speak about these 2 quantum technology Eras and I will present MajuLab, an IRL pooling CNRS, UCA, SU, NUS and NTU and formally created in 2014 on a collaboration started in 2008 with the Centre for Quantum Technologies of Singapore.