The symbiosis between blue sky research and technology: the example of quantum physics Serge Haroche Kiev, Mai 2018
Basic science and technology have always progressed together. Since the dawn of modern science, fundamental discoveries motivated by curiosity have led to the development of new tools, which in turn have increased our ability to investigate Nature, leading to further discoveries. Quantum physics provides an illustration of this virtuous circle. It was born to answer fundamental questions about the microscopic word, without any specific application in mind. And yet, after the laws ruling the behavior of electrons, atoms and photons have been understood, technologies exploiting these rules have emerged, which would have astonished the founding fathers of the theory. Computers, lasers, atomic clocks, magnetic resonance imaging machines have been invented, improving our means to calculate, to store information and to communicate. These devices, which have revolutionized our lives, have also been essential in the laboratory to push basic science further. The laser for instance is a tool used to cool, trap and to control single atoms in experiments exploring in depth the strange laws of quantum theory such as state superposition and entanglement. These studies let us now envision a second quantum revolution in technology, where the strangeness of quantum physics would be directly used to achieve tasks that present machines are unable to accomplish. The quantum computer would exploit the quantum strangeness of logical gates being at the same time open and closed in order to compute much faster than today’s machines. Its realization, still far from certain, would require further breakthroughs in basic science. In the mean time, other examples of these new quantum technologies are coming of age in the fields of communication and metrology. And, as the history of science is teaching us, unexpected inventions are bound to emerge from the fundamental knowledge that quantum physicists are now acquiring in their laboratories.