Quantum computing promises to transform our world in rapid, radical and revolutionary ways: solving in seconds problems that would take classical computers years, accelerating the discovery of new medicines, creating sustainable materials, optimizing complex systems, and strengthening cybersecurity. It does so using qubits, the quantum counterparts of classical bits, which can occupy multiple states simultaneously and enable a fundamentally new kind of computation.
For example, imagine 1,000 trucks need to arrive at 10,000 different locations, each, in different parts of the country. A traditional computation model would examine each of the 10 million possible routes one by one to evaluate their efficacy, but a quantum model would be able to evaluate all those millions of different routes instantaneously.
At the same time, quantum sensing is opening new frontiers in precision measurement, enabling technologies such as ultra-sensitive medical imaging and navigation systems that can detect minute changes in gravity or magnetic fields, capabilities that could allow doctors to identify diseases earlier or help vehicles navigate without GPS. UCF researchers believe the science of light, photonics, may hold the key to unlocking quantum computing 麻豆精品 S檚 true potential.
麻豆精品 S淭o produce truly useful quantum computers, we need complex, entangled states of light that are robust to imperfections, 麻豆精品 S� says Professor Andrea Blanco-Redondo.
Blanco-Redondo is the Florida Photonics Center of Excellence Endowed Professor of Optics and Photonics at CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics. She heads the Quantum Silicon Photonics (QSP) research group, which aims to better understand the fundamental classical and quantum properties of light 麻豆精品 S� knowledge that will be critical to advance the field of quantum computing.
The team 麻豆精品 S檚 study on 麻豆精品 S淗igh-dimensional Topological Photonic Entanglement 麻豆精品 S� is now published in Science, featuring Blanco-Redondo alongside CREOL doctoral student Javad Zakery and former research scientist Armando Perez-Leija (now at Saint Louis University) as the principal investigators.
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Topological Transformation
Topological modes are special ways for light to propagate within a structure. They are immune to imperfections because their existence is protected by the system 麻豆精品 S檚 overall (global rather than local) properties of the system. One example is superlattices, which have been known to generate these modes.
Blanco-Redondo sums up the breakthrough: 麻豆精品 S淲e have figured out a way to entangle the topological protected modes of superlattices. 麻豆精品 S�
Any one photon can be in a complex superposition of multiple states at once. When two such photons are entangled, Blanco-Redondo explains, measuring one of them will determine the mode of the other.
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Entangling multiple topological states was the fundamental limit 麻豆精品 S� or so scientists thought.
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That means those entangled states will be, not only more robust to imperfections, but will have larger capacity for encoding quantum information, both critical qualities for a quantum system 麻豆精品 S檚 stability and thus to enable quantum information systems at scale.
Surfing the Waveguides
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The end result, according to Blanco-Redondo is a larger capacity to encode quantum information resiliently.
Collaboration at CREOL
This marks the second time the QSP group has been featured in a major research journal in the past year, after their recent feature in Nature Materials in 2025. Their discoveries demonstrated the use of a platform to precisely control the dissipation, or loss, of states of light, which in turn leads to robust topological properties.
This comes at a time that the Florida Alliance for Quantum Technology (FAQT), of which CREOL is a part of, is accelerating its industry outreach efforts with the goal of making Florida a leading hub for quantum technology. FAQT took center stage during the , which brought together leaders across academia, industry and government.
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This research was conducted by faculty, students and staff at UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), including the Quantum Silicon Photonics research group. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation under their NSF ExpandQISE program (award No. 2328993).
