Title: NIST Awards Gold Medal to Adriana Lita, Sae Woo Nam, and Thomas Gerrits for Breakthrough Quantum Photon Detectors
Summary:
NIST has awarded its prestigious Gold Medal to researchers Adriana Lita, Sae Woo Nam, and Thomas Gerrits for their development of ultra-sensitive light detectors using superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES). These detectors are unique in their ability to count individual photons with high efficiency, a critical capability for quantum computing and other advanced photonic applications.
The team’s work enabled the creation of the world’s largest programmable photonic quantum computer, which is publicly accessible. This quantum computer demonstrated a quantum computational advantage, marking a significant step towards practical large-scale quantum computing. The achievement brings the U.S. closer to solving complex problems that are intractable for classical computers, opening up new possibilities in fields such as cryptography, drug discovery, and materials science.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/nist-awards/2024-gold-medal-award-adriana-lita-sae-woo-nam-thomas-gerrits
Keywords: superconducting, transition-edge, quantum, computational
