The University of Trieste has recently inaugurated two new quantum physics laboratories located at the premises of the National Research Council (CNR) in the Area Science Park of Basovizza.
The ArQuS (Artificial Quantum Systems) laboratory, one of a kind in Italy, was funded by the European Research Council (ERC), under the Horizon 2020 programme, and by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), under the FARE (FastOrbit) and the PRIN 2022 (CoQuS) programmes. The laboratory will develop artificial quantum systems through the control of individual atoms using an advanced experimental equipment. The atoms will be isolated from the external environment, cooled to a temperature of one millionth of a degree above absolute zero, and finally trapped with laser light. Laser radiation, in fact, can be used to control particles in an extremely precise way by exploiting quantum nature for new technological applications.
The QCI (Quantum Communication and Information) laboratory, funded by the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia under “Quantum FVG” and “QuFree” projects, will focus on the research and technological development of new solutions for quantum communications over optical fibres and operating over free space. Quantum information, a discipline combining information science and quantum mechanics, has produced very promising advances and results in this field over the last few years. Thanks to the instruments available at the laboratory, researchers aim to lay the foundations for setting up quantum networks for data manipulation and transmission capable of ensuring maximum safety.
According to directors, Francesco Scazza, associate professor in Physics of Matter of the Department of Physics of UniTS and Alessandro Zavatta, senior research scientist of the National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council (INO-CNR), the two laboratories represent an unprecedented success that will be very beneficial for frontier research. Moreover, the University of Trieste is going to inaugurate two new courses related to the research that will take place in the two newly inaugurated laboratories: the Master’s degreein Quantum Science and Technology and in Physics of Matter, and the three-year Batchelor degree course in Physics.
