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UK builds world’s smallest light detector to shrink quantum computers | The detector is not just the world’s smallest but also 10 times faster than detectors previously built for quantum light detection.

The detector is not just the world's smallest but also 10 times faster than detectors previously built for quantum light detection.

If, like its binary counterpart, a quantum computer has to be deployed at scale, the device itself needs to be shrunken in size and made easier to switch on and operate. The research team showed first glimpses of its work in 2021 when it linked a photonics chip with an electronics one and increased the speed of quantum light detection. In their work, the researchers were keen to demonstrate that shrinking the detector size did not affect its sensitivity to measure quantum states, which they succeeded in doing.

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