Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOFIn a new contribution to the "acatech IMPULS" series, authors from the German Academy of Science and Engineering have summarized the current state of quantum technologies in Germany. The results are based on an evaluation of specialist literature and exploratory expert interviews with a total of 95 representatives from science, industry, politics, and society. Prof. Andreas Tünnermann, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena and the Institute for Applied Physics at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, was also involved in the interviews.
Promising potential for the future
In its review, Acatech concludes that, in addition to quantum computers, other new quantum technologies that have been discussed comparatively little in public will have a major impact on our lives in the future. Practical quantum simulators could be realized faster than the quantum computer and thus be used earlier than the latter in materials research. Tap-proof quantum communications could become a central part of our IT architecture. Last but not least, the exploitation of quantum mechanical effects in novel sensors could make diagnostic procedures both more precise and more comfortable for patients.
Initiatives and major projects for the realization and transfer of quantum technologies
Fraunhofer IOF and the Institute of Applied Physics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena are involved in various initiatives and large-scale projects to make such future predictions feasible more quickly and to bring the technologies required for this purpose into application. In particular, the topics quantum communications, quantum imaging, and increasingly quantum computing are addressed.
Within the framework of the BMBF initiative "QuNET" the consortium partners Fraunhofer IOF, Fraunhofer HHI, DLR Institute for Communication and Navigation KN and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light MPL have been preparing the development of a quantum communications infrastructure since 2019. By using integrated optics, the Jena researchers have already succeeded in realizing highly miniaturized components required for the construction of more complex quantum networks.
In order to further expand the networking of research institutions in Germany – but also throughout Europe – the Fraunhofer lighthouse project QUILT (Quantum Methods for Advanced Imaging Solutions) was also initiated in 2017. It is a consortium of six Fraunhofer institutes as well as partners from science and industry that work closely together in the field of quantum-based imaging methods. The first application-oriented quantum imaging components and quantum spectrometers have already been developed within this initiative.
Despite various BMBF funding measures for the commercial transfer of technologies, the experts in the Acatech study rate the startup landscape in Germany as still too underdeveloped overall and report a lack of venture and, above all, growth capital. Activities at universities and non-university research institutions, such as the Transfer Center Digital Innovation Hub Photonics at Fraunhofer IOF would therefore be of essential importance for the value chains in the respective fields of second-generation quantum technologies.