SQuaD as a Guest at the final QR.X Meeting:
With around 90 participants – including representatives of the Umbrella Project for Quantum Communication in Germany (Schirmprojekt Quantenkommunikation Deutschland, SQuaD) – the status seminar of the BMBF-funded joint project Quantumrepeater.Link (QR.X) took place on 6 and 7 June 2024 at the Physikzentrum Bad Honnef. In August 2021, more than 40 partners from academic research institutions, institutes and companies joined forces to develop a central component of future quantum communication networks: the quantum repeater. The aim of the current funding phase is to demonstrate the basic functionalities of a quantum repeater. To this end, hardware components are to be optimized and tested on test tracks under realistic conditions – i.e. outside protected laboratory environments – and assembled into an operational quantum repeater demonstrator.
After three years of work, the partners presented the highlights of the project. In his opening speech, project speaker Christoph Becher looked back on the key achievements of QR.X, including the optimization of existing quantum hardware components and the development of improved quantum communication protocols. As part of the project, for example, entanglement between rubidium atoms and photons in the C‑band was generated for the first time over a 101 km long glass fiber link with a quality of more than 70%. In QR.X, four fiber test tracks were also put into operation and used to demonstrate basic protocols of quantum communication, entanglement distribution, and quantum teleportation. In addition to the presentation of the results of the four platforms “Halbleiter-Quantenpunkte”, “Diamant-Farbzentren”, “Atome und Ionen” and “Theorie” with 41 sub-projects, the participants of the status seminar could look forward to exciting expert lectures and two sessions with around 50 posters.
Photo: Prof. Dr. Christoph Becher welcomes the participants of the QR.X meeting.