New UK Project Plans To Build Powerful Laser Source For Quantum Technology

Bay Photonics, a leading UK company in the field of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) packaging, recently announced its collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to participate in the Q-Pods, a quantum technology project funded by Innovate UK, the UK's innovation department.
Q-Pods are specialized mechanically and thermally stabilized optoelectronic modules used to drive magneto-optical traps (MOTs) used in several UK quantum projects. the Q-Pods project will significantly reduce size, weight and power versus cost by integrating all the basic components into a robust package (SWAP -C).
The current system used in the Quantum project relies heavily on laboratory-grade components to manually calibrate the optics on an optical table. Unfortunately, this manual calibration method typically leads to unstable systems and degrades performance due to continuous calibration drift. This leads to difficulties in system-level production of quantum products based on atomic traps.
In this project, Bay Photonics will work with NPL and a User Advisory Board (UAB) consisting of several end users and system integrators to develop Q-Pods. several UAB members are developing/have systems that include various magneto-optical trap (MOT) chamber configurations and have expressed a need for Q Pods to enhance their product offerings.
Compared to existing systems, Q-Pods offer significantly reduced optical alignment drift (compared to manually tuned X-Y stages/stands), fewer components (no alignment optics required), significant improvements in mechanical and thermal stability, smaller form factors, and larger production scale.
Q-Pods will position Bay Photonics as a major supplier to the UAB and the broader cold atom field. With an enhanced and improved design, they will seek to leverage market opportunities in ion capture for a range of applications such as quantum computing, high-speed telecommunications and LIDAR.