Top quantum physics specialist Alain Aspect explains how close collaboration between French startups and the world of fundamental research is accelerating the development of a quantum computer.
This article is taken from the monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche No. 932, published in October 2024.
Alan Aspect got the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022.
Science and the future: Many technologies are being explored for making qubits. Wouldn't it be better to concentrate forces on just one?
Alan Aspect : No, because we are far from being advanced enough to predict which one will outperform the others. Today, each has its advantages and disadvantages. Of course, the type of qubit we use will depend on what we want to do. For example, photons are very good at transmitting quantum information, but certainly not at storing it.
“I always tell my students: “If you have good ideas, implement them without hesitation.”
You've gone from basic research to co-founding a startup, is that something you encourage?
I have never undertaken basic research other than to be convinced that its applications should be encouraged. But if my mind is well directed towards research, I am not good at applications. So I always tell my students: “If you have good ideas, implement them without hesitation.”
Among the people who founded PascalMany of them are former doctoral students. They naturally asked me what I thought about it and if I wanted to help them by getting involved in the organization. I accepted, and it is a pleasure to see how the startup develops and progresses…
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What is your role within Pascal and the other startups you are involved with?
I am here to enjoy observing activity different from that which has characterized my professional life, and perhaps to make comments from a scientific point of view. In the same spirit, I agreed to be a member of the scientific boards of several startups: Pasqal, Quellela, or Welinq. I limit myself[…]
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