People & Prizes

“My most notable moment of 2019 was the ‘Avond van Wetenschap en Maatschappij’ (Night of Science and Society). Ronald Hanson was invited to lead a discussion on quantum technology, and I accompanied him to introduce our topic and explain the basics to the other guests at our table. These weren’t just any guests, however! Next to me and across the table were the Dutch Minister of Education, renowned physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf, Olympic swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband, and the King of the Netherlands, to name just a few. When we heard who would be joining us, it made me a bit self-conscious: how do you behave in front of the King? Are my table manners satisfactory? In the end, we had a wonderful evening and an interesting discussion about the social implications of quantum technology.

2020 will be another exciting year for me, as we are working on creating the world’s first three-node quantum network and we expect to have this functional in the coming months.”

“As a physicist working on materials science, QuTech is a very interesting environment for me to work in. An institute that works on research and engineering at each layer of the stack for the development of a quantum computer together with industrial partners is unique in the world and that is really what attracted me. When I present a new idea, others instantly come back with their own ideas about applications or new directions for research. That interaction with the environment for me is really one of the most rewarding aspects of this work.

Equally rewarding to me is mentoring students. As a group leader, I supervise a number of Master students, PhDs and Postdocs. I love the journey that they take, first learning to take pride in their work, then the fulfilment of presenting their work to the outside world. And finally, even better, when they measure up to you, they become your equal and take off in another direction. Then you can learn from them and get something back. That intellectual satisfaction is what drives me and keeps me going.”

“My highlight of 2019 was definitely our work on the 7-qubit working chip, which we designed within the Intel and IARPA project. Although all the deadlines put a lot of pressure on the group, we were very pleased with the end result: seven interacting qubits with state-of-the-art performance.

For 2020, our goal is to scale up and connect even more qubits with high qubit lifetimes on a single chip. We already finished the design of a 17-qubit chip this January, and while we’re waiting for it to be fabricated we are working on a 49-qubit chip. We use a modular design approach and aim to achieve quantum error correction in a scalable manner.

What really drives me is the energy of all the enthusiastic people here at QuTech, and of course the unique work environment. All the different disciplines complement each other: having an engineering background, I really feel that my input is appreciated by the physics community. Although QuTech is a collaboration between TU Delft and TNO, I see it as one organisation. Everyone here is a QuTech’er.”

“In my lab, we are currently betting on silicon and germanium as the quantum materials for the future quantum computer. In 2019, we showed for the first time that silicon qubits can be operated even at temperatures above one Kelvin. This opens perspectives for quantum integrated circuits that host both qubits and control circuitry. With germanium, we showed that we can execute full two-qubit logic. This was a fascinating result, even more so because we had only been working on it for about two years. What fascinates me most is that we have to be creative at all levels, from fabrication to design, from experiment to analysis. I simply love to solve these puzzles, in particular when other people say that they can’t be done. I’m not someone to take “no” for an answer.

At the same time, I think that being a parent has helped me to put things in perspective and become more flexible. When I come home after work, it is typically rush hour and I instantly have to switch to an entirely different mode. When my kids are in bed, I typically have fresh ideas and can continue to solve the puzzle.”

“In 2019, my group really worked on collaboration. QuTech is a mission-driven institute, and the collaboration between the engineers of TNO and the scientists of TU Delft is a great opportunity. For example, this year we were unsatisfied with the reliability of our qubit production. Early this year we then took a step back to look at our fabrication as well as decision processes with a critical eye. That can be frustrating because you would rather move forward, but personally I really appreciate this attention to our way of working and the possibility to adjust and correct for it.

In 2020, we will be able to reap the benefits of these enhancements, and start producing spin-qubits with a much higher yield than we used to. So because our work process is better standardized and documented, the reliability of the production will also be much higher. And I think that is also the role of QuTech: to develop processes that don’t just work once or twice, but that bring us a very rigorous and strong base.”

“For me, 2019 was the year that many important developments finally came together. I started my tenure track at QuTech in late 2017. Then, of course, it first took some time to set up a new lab. Now I feel that we are at a nice ‘launching pad’ where the required infrastructure, measurement and fabrication techniques have matured to a stage where we can do some very interesting science in topological systems.

What really helped us to set this up quickly was the environment at QuTech. The excellent technical support makes research go much faster, and the open culture fosters collaborations between groups. For example, we’ve been working together with Giordano Scappucci, because we have a shared interest in two-dimensional systems. They have an efficient measurement system and protocol for studying semiconductor quantum wells and are helping us to characterize some novel platforms for topological superconductivity.

In 2019 our group produced two nice publications with proof-of-principle results on using the new materials for topological quantum computing. With these building blocks in place I feel that in 2020 we are in a position to execute new ideas and experiments to study topological phases in two-dimensional semiconductors.”