C17. Commission on Quantum Electronics

Report to the IUPAP Council and Commission Chairs Meeting
Mumbai, India
October 2004

Recently there has been good progress toward realizing quantum computers, especially using trapped ions and atoms as the source of the quantum bits. The quantum states of ions in radio frequency traps can be initialized and then processed using Raman laser excitations between the states of the ion. Teleportation, controlled phase gates and quantum error correction, all required for a large-scale quantum computer, have recently been demonstrated using these techniques. It is possible that quantum networks, simulation of complex physics problems and even factoring of large numbers used in security codes may be in the future for quantum computing. Many problems in quantum electronics remain to be solved in order to realize quantum computers including laser stabilization and spatial/temporal control of the thousands of laser beams required for large scale computers.

In the applied area the dramatic slow down in the optical communications industry has continued. The next phase of optical communications technology may well be installation of optical fiber to local neighborhoods. This is the only way to bring the wide bandwidth necessary for high definition television to the home. Home networks, HDTV, security, wireless phones and game platforms, are making an impact on the market. This will add to the already growing volume of data flowing through optical networks. The emphasis today is on low cost optical solutions in the network. Clearly integration of optical components similar to that in VLSI electronics is one solution to low cost applications. This evolution of optical components and networks will be a growing focus of applications in quantum electronics.

The present membership of Commission 17 is:

Chair: Richart Slusher
Vice Chair: Ryszard Tanas
Secretary: Kennichi Ueda

Members:

Humberto Brandi
Sudhanshu Jha
Alexander Kaminskii
Abraham Katzir
Dieter Meschede
Michel Piche
K. Alan Shore
Irina Veretennicoff
Gabor Sczabo
Jie Zhang
K. Apter(OSA)
G. Righini (ICO)

We are still hoping to implement some of the ideas arising from the discussion between Kennichi Ueda and Richart Slusher at the CLEO/QELS meeting, June 2, 2003. A new web page is in preparation with pictures of the Commission members and their research interests as well as a summary status of the field and possible future activities of the Commission. We hope to establish contacts in a number of developing nations in order to understand their needs and maintain communications channels with a large portion of the international quantum electronics communities. Other possibilities include sharing software for organizing conferences including electronic submission and review of papers with scientists in developing countries and an introduction to resources in the field of quantum electronics on the Internet including access to journals, lectures notes and upcoming events.

A large number of conferences related to quantum electronics are held every year. Our Commission continues to help sponsor approximately two per year.

This year the sponsored conference is:

International Symposium “Modern Problems of Laser Physics”
Novosibirsk, Russia
08/22-26/2004

The International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 2005, Japan was pre-approved for funding support at the January 2003 IUPAP Chairs meeting and this approval has been used to enhance other funding opportunities for this conference. This IQEC conference is the major event on the C17 Commission list of activities. We are hoping that a major fraction of our Commission can meet next year at the IQEC conference in Japan.

The International Conference On Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations to be held on May 2-6, 2005 in Besancon, France will also be sponsored by the IUPAP through the C17 Commission.

A number of societies are focused in quantum electronics including:

• Optical Society of America
• SPIE - The Optical Engineering Society
• European Optical Society
• IEEE - Lasers and Electro-Optics Society

These organizations continue to grow with the field in membership and volume of publications and also sponsor large numbers of conferences, many with significant industrial participation. However in many cases the registration fees for the conferences exceed the IUPAP guidelines. As a result the types of conferences C17 is tending to sponsor are A type conferences outside of North America and Western Europe as well as more specialized B-type conferences. There is active involvement of C-17 with commission C-15 as well as the affiliated commission AC-1, the International Commission on Optics(ICO). We have a representative from the ICO, Giancarlo Righini, that will serve as liaison to our Commission. K. Apter from the OSA will help us coordinate activities with the OSA. Our committee membership is broadly distributed throughout the world and many different disciplines are represented.

Richart Slusher
October, 2004
IUPAP Commission C17