The goal of the "Quantum Austria" funding initiative is to promote excellent, transformative and innovative basic research in the field of quantum physics, quantum computing and next generation high performance computing, to competitively position Austria in the EU and worldwide, and to successfully use quantum technology for innovative products and services. The programme is financed with funds from the European Reconstruction and Resilience Fund under the label "NextGenerationEU". On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the research initiative is handled by the two agencies FWF and FFG.
The current funding commitments to research groups at the Faculty of Physics totalling EUR 8.1 million go to three projects from the FFG call and one project from the FWF call:
In the "R&D Infrastructure" funding line of the FFG call, research groups from the Faculty of Physics are benefiting in three of a total of four approved projects:
The "Vienna Microscope for Quantum Materials (VMQM)" will expand the cutting-edge research of Jani Kotakoski's group (Physics of Nanostructured Materials) in the area of preparation and manipulation of solid-state quantum materials on the atomic scale. The planned infrastructure has the potential to secure Austria's leading role in this research area on an international level. "Over the past ten years, we have developed a unique system for the generation, manipulation and imaging of quantum centres in materials at the atomic scale. Thanks to the extensive funding from 'Quantum Austria', we can go beyond imaging the atomic structure and perform direct measurements of quantum properties with capabilities that are currently not available anywhere in the world. This ensures that we will continue to be at the forefront of this research field in the years to come," affirms project leader Jani Kotakoski.
In the project "Hubs for advanced solid-state quantum information devices (HuSQI)", physicists led by Philip Walther (Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information) and their colleagues at the Universities of Linz and Innsbruck are building an infrastructure consisting of state-of-the-art cryostats, electronics and laser systems to characterise solid-state devices – e.g. quantum dots as photon sources - for quantum technology and to operate them without interruption.
In a cooperation between the team of Martin Fally and Jürgen Klepp (Physics of Functional Materials) and colleagues from the Atomic Institute of the TU Wien, the INRiM (IT) and the ILL (CH), novel interferometers for neutrons of different energies are being built in the project "Neutron Experiments on Quantum States at Pico Scale (NextPI)", with the help of which an increase in the sensitivity for quantum phenomena of matter waves is to be achieved.
In the area of foundational university research, Norbert Schuch (Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information and Faculty of Mathematics) will develop methods for identifying and characterising exotic states of matter in simulations and experiments in the "Entanglement Order Parameters" project supported by the FWF research agency.
Projects approved in previous rounds of the "Quantum Austria" programme are currently being carried out by the following researchers at the Faculty of Physics:
Iris Agresti (Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information): "Photonic REservoir computing QUantum correlation Set Oracle" (FWF, ESPRIT programme); https://pf.fwf.ac.at/de/wissenschaft-konkret/project-finder/58275
Anna Francuz (Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information): "Tensor Networks and Topological Phase Transitions" (FWF, ESPRIT programme); https://pf.fwf.ac.at/de/wissenschaft-konkret/project-finder/59645
Beatrix Hiesmayr (Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information): "Free and Bound Entanglement in High-Dimensional Systems" (FWF, individual project); https://pf.fwf.ac.at/de/wissenschaft-konkret/project-finder/58171
Further links:
https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/eu-aufbauplan/projekte/quantum-austria.html
https://www.ffg.at/en/quantum-austria
https://m.fwf.ac.at/de/wissenschaft-konkret/im-fokus-foerderinitiative-quantum-austria
