Physicists receive big 'nano' grant (6/8/2008)

Professor Stephen Hughes (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy) is co-leader of new, $4.2-million nanotechnology research project.

Two Queen's physicists and their Canadian collaborators will receive almost $4.2 million funding for a new project to develop novel sources of light that will radically change the landscape in secure communications over networks.

Professors Stephen Hughes and James Stotz (Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy) have won a major NSERC-NRC-BDC Nanotechnology Special Opportunity Research Grant. The project is co-led by Drs. Hughes and Robin Williams, a Queen's adjunct professor who works at the National Research Council of Canada. Their project, entitled "Nanostructured Single and Entangled Photon Sources for Quantum Information Processing" was one of only five of the 50 submitted proposals that were funded throughout Canada.

Offered under a new cross-agency collaboration involving the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the National Research Council (NRC), and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), the special funding is designed to foster large-scale, technology-driven partnerships encompassing university researchers, NRC scientists, and commercial interests.

The Queen's led research team will combine unique, "nano-sized" electronic and photonic structures that use single photons (particles) of light for new computing and encryption technologies. "This use of these photons is critical in new paradigms of information technology such as quantum cryptography, which guarantees secure communication over networks, and quantum computers that will be able to solve certain problems exponentially faster than any conventional supercomputer," says Dr. Hughes.

The researchers will make use of recent techniques developed within Canadian government and university laboratories that allow single semiconductor quantum dots - about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - to be placed at precise locations within custom-designed nanophotonic crystals.

"These quantum dots behave as artificial atoms that can be tailored to provide photons compatible with current standards in the fibre-optic industry, while the nanophotonic crystal serves to control the storage and emission of the photons," Dr. Stotz explains. The involvement of the BDC in the funding decision demonstrates the potential that the project has to stimulate the creation of new Canadian companies that focus on systems for completely secure communications for data protection, he adds.

Also on the research team are: Jeff Young (UBC); Frank van Veggel (University of Victoria); Gregor Weihs and Hamed Majedi (University of Waterloo); and Pawel Hawrylak, Charles Bamber and Joanne Zwinkels (all from NRC).

This grant is one of two such awards to Queen's researchers. Chemistry professors Suning Wang and Guojun Liu are also NSERC-NRC-BDC recipients. They will work on a team based at Université Laval, studying polymeric/inorganic semiconductor nanocomposite materials for low-cost photovoltaic applications.

NSERC, a federal agency that supports the research and advanced studies of university professors, students and post-doctorial fellows across Canada, has provided Queen's recipients with a total of $20.2 million in funding this year through grants and scholarships.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Queen's University

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