Marco Stucki is one of the five winners of our “Art Meets Science” ideas competition. He won in the category of quantum technologies—one of the major transformative topics of our time.
At the Ferdinand Braun Institute, Marco Stucki is developing tiny diamond structures that help store and transmit quantum information—a potential building block for the computers of the future.
Quantum computers are considered the key technology of tomorrow. They promise a revolution in information processing; the United Nations has even declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. But there is still a long way to go: qubits, the basic units of information in a quantum computer, are extremely susceptible to interference. Technical control over many qubits simultaneously is complex, and the loss-free transmission of quantum information also poses major challenges for research.
This is precisely where Marco Stucki and his research group come in: in the applied field of quantum information processing, they are developing novel material platforms that can be used to generate, manipulate, and transmit qubits. At the heart of their work is the Sawfish Cavity – an optical resonator with a wave-like structure that can efficiently amplify light and guide it into optical fibers in a targeted manner. The name is inspired by the distinctive nose of a sawfish.
What makes it special is that the entire structure is made of the hardest material in the world – diamond. Electron beams and plasma technology are used to create tiny nanoscale components that could one day play a central role in quantum communication systems.
In this interview, Marco talks about the challenges of working with diamond, about luminous color centers, quantum bits, and why we probably won't be carrying quantum computers in our pockets anytime soon – but why they could still change our world.