Over the past few years, some work has been done to develop a curriculum for teaching quantum technicians. One challenge centers on the concept that there are multiple fundamentally different technologies involved in many of the applications. These include different approaches to quantum computing, communications, and sensing. Technician training, like for laser and optics technicians, typically have been completed in two years or less at local community colleges, with associate degrees being the top-level credential available. Other shorter programs lead to certificates in the specific area of training. An umbrella concept that emerged from a QED-C workshop three was that creating awareness of introductory quantum topics for students in adjacent technology programs, like lasers, optics, nano, and microelectronics could be implemented by adding one or more quantum courses to these programs, based on the requirements of local industry, academic and government laboratory needs. Continuing to build on these efforts, this paper highlights some details of a few programs as examples to provide models for other programs to use in their local communities. One key concept addressed is how to recruit students to these programs from the local communities and recommendations to help guide program development for new entrants to the field.
As trapped ion systems add more ions to allow for increasingly sophisticated quantum processing and sensing capabilities, the traditional optical-mechanical laboratory infrastructure that make such systems possible are in some cases the limiting factor in further growth of the systems. One promising solution is to integrate as many, if not all, optical components such as waveguides and gratings, single-photon detectors, and high extinction ratio optical switches/modulators either into ion traps themselves or into auxiliary devices that can be easily integrated with ion traps. Here we report on recent efforts at Sandia National Laboratories to include integrated photonics in our surface ion trap platforms.
ColdQuanta’s microShutter is a free-space, chip-scale mechanical shutter designed for laser shuttering applications. The microShutter breaks through the size constraints of MEMS fiber shutters by eliminating the optical fiber and operating on the beam inline and in free-space. The microShutter allows laser shuttering in a form factor and with a power budget that enables high performance optical applications in hand-held devices. Uniquely, each microShutter chip integrates a beam dump that captures stray light in an on-board light trap. The microShutter is designed to the power, performance, and size requirements of portable atomic clocks and other compact atomic systems requiring free-space optical distribution. The prototype chip has been demonstrated to draw less than 0.5 μA at 150 V. A low power driver circuit that can operate the microShutter with 2.5 mW with a 4V supply has been demonstrated. Early prototypes demonstrate extinction below -45 dB with insertion loss of -2 dB, an open-closed transition time of 12 μs and closed-open transition time of 14 µs.
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