Tomsk State University has signed an agreement to join the consortium National Quantum Laboratory, which is aimed at creating quantum computers and performing quantum computing. Joining the consortium will help TSU radiophysicists in creating NV center qubits (quantum computer components), and new educational prospects will make TSU graduates more competitive in the field of quantum technologies.
Consortium National Quantum Laboratory unites the efforts of universities, research centers, development teams, startups, tech companies, financial organizations, and other participants interested in the growth of quantum technologies in Russia. In 2022, Tomsk State University received an invitation to join the consortium and became the first Siberian organization to join this enterprise.
TSU has been working on quantum technologies since 2018; as of now, several divisions of Tomsk State University are involved in quantum research, including the Department and Laboratory of Quantum Electronics and Photonics of the Faculty of Radiophysics and the Faculty of Physics.
Thus, for the first time in the world, TSU radiophysicists achieved laser generation using NV centers under optical excitation: this is the most significant scientific achievement of the Faculty of Radiophysics in the field of quantum technologies, as noted by the Dean of the faculty Aleksandr Korotaev.
“Our faculty mainly deals with the creation of the element base for quantum communications and quantum computers, whereas the Faculty of Physics is working on the campus course Quantum. The recently TSU-established Regional Center of End-to-end Telecommunication Equipment Design will soon join our scope of activities,” says Aleksandr Korotaev. “Here at our faculty we have programs of additional education, including ones that will prepare you for the Quantum Technologies track in the WorldSkills championship. Over 500 people of various age categories have already passed them. Additionally, we introduced the discipline Quantum Communications Technology to the master’s degree course Photonics and Optical Informatics; open lectures on popular sciences are being held too.”
Students and faculty members of the Faculty of Radiophysics time and time again proved their worth as quantum technology specialists at open interuniversity WorldSkills Russia championships. In 2019, the championship's gold medal was taken by Kristina Khomyakova, a graduate student of the Department of Quantum Electronics and Photonics of the Faculty of Radiophysics. In 2020, Ekaterina Yurchenko, a student of the Faculty of Radiophysics, received the bronze medal at WorldSkills Russia, and in 2021 she was the winner of DigitalSkills-2021, a specialized championship similar to WorldSkills that focuses on information technology. In 2022, a student of the Faculty of Radiophysics, Philip Yakimenko, won the bronze medal at the 4th DigitalSkills-2022 Specialized Championship on Information Technology. Moreover, associate professor Yuliya Maslova of the Faculty of Radiophysics is a certified WorldSkills expert.
“TSU plays a significant role in educational projects as well. This year, a pilot educational project for schoolchildren will be launched in Moscow, which is planned to be implemented in all regions of Russia in 2023. It will also include the methodological groundwork provided by TSU. Also, the consortium will see a scientific project competition, where we will be able to use all the achievements of the Faculty of Radiophysics in the field of quantum technologies,” adds the Dean of the Faculty of Radiophysics.
Quantum technologies have been actively developed at TSU since 2018, when the representatives of the company QRate showed the university an educational prototype of a quantum key distribution network. It was decided to purchase this technology, and the Faculty of Radiophysics volunteered to supervise the new project. When the first stage began in 2019, the faculty focused on building the infrastructure and establishing the educational process. Then, as part of the state assignment in the national project Science, the Laboratory of Quantum Information Technologies was created at TSU. Since 2021, quantum research at Tomsk State University has been supported by the federal program Priority 2030.
TSU is a member of the consortium founded by the Quantum Communications Competence Center of NTI and created at the National University of Science and Technology MISiS; it also collaborates with the Russian Quantum Center (Skolkovo), ITMO University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, Moscow State University, and Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, as well as institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Institute of Solid State Physics, Institute of Applied Physics, Ioffe Institute, Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, and Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences.
For reference: the consortium National Quantum Laboratory was established in 2020 for the development of quantum technologies in Russia. It is one of the measures to implement the high-tech roadmap Quantum Computing.