Quantum technologies are changing how we sense, communicate and process information – and light is at the heart of this revolution. At the Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies (QOT) we harness superposition, entanglement and the quantum nature of light and atoms to build devices that go beyond what classical physics allows: sensors of unprecedented sensitivity, communication links that reach farther and stay secure, and quantum memories and processors of light. We take ideas all the way from fundamental research to working prototypes, together with partners from science, the space sector and industry.
The Centre was established in 2018 by the University of Warsaw in partnership with the University of Oxford under the International Research Agendas programme (MAB) of the Foundation for Polish Science, project MAB/2018/4, with funding of PLN 34,999,430. It is hosted by the Centre of New Technologies, an interdisciplinary research and technology unit of the University of Warsaw, and maintains strong ties with the Faculty of Physics at UW. QOT founder and head researcher of the QOT-FENG project is Prof. Konrad Banaszek.
In 2024 QOT received PLN 30,000,000 within the MAB FENG programme of the Foundation for Polish Science to continue its work and bring quantum optical technologies into practical applications. The QOT-FENG project is carried out in partnership with Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the Netherlands. The QOT project is supported by the European Union – see more.
In its first phase, funded by the Smart Growth Operational Programme, QOT laid the foundations of optical quantum technologies in Warsaw:
In the second project we develop optical quantum technologies for signal processing, secure communication and new quantum sensors, together with TU/e:
QOT currently consists of four laboratories focusing on:
Former QOT labs include:
Nat. Commun. 17 (2026)
We used Rydberg atoms both to sense a microwave field and to process the information they collect. Dipolar interactions between the atoms implement an error-prevention protocol against losses at the detection stage: counterintuitively, adding a non-linear, lossy channel triples the Fisher information. A single 160-ns microwave pulse is measured with a precision of (217 ± 8) µV/cm.
New J. Phys. 28 (2026)
Optical key distribution uses the noise inherent in photodetection to share secret keys over standard intensity-modulation and direct-detection links. We showed that it stays secure even when the eavesdropper uses coherent detection or quantum-optimal measurements, which only reduce the key rate by a constant factor.
Nat. Commun. 16 (2025)
We introduced optical-bias detection: a Rydberg receiver that stays fully optical, with no microwave local oscillator, yet reaches high sensitivity. Measuring laser phase noise with a nonlinear process and correcting it in real time improves the signal-to-noise ratio by 35 dB, giving 176 nV/cm/√Hz, reliable operation up to 3.5 mV/cm and reception of QAM data.
Phys. Rev. Res. 7 (2025)
The range of optical communication in deep space is set by how many bits each received photon carries. With colleagues from Nokia Bell Labs, the University of Toronto and Columbia University we demonstrated detection at a record 14.5 bits per incident photon after 87.5 dB of attenuation – just 8.84 zeptojoules per bit at 1550 nm.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 134 (2025)
Feshbach resonances made cold atoms a playground for strongly correlated physics. We showed that tunnelling between the layers of atomically thin semiconductors creates two distinct classes of such resonances, making the coupling between electrons and both intralayer and long-lived interlayer excitons fully tunable – opening Bose–Fermi mixtures in solids.
Nat. Photonics 18 (2024)
We used Rydberg atoms in a hot-vapor cell to convert microwaves into light via a six-wave mixing process. Thanks to a unique scheme, we achieve good efficiency, large bandwidth, and no detectable intrinsic noise. That allowed us to detect upconverted thermal radiation (corresponding to only roughly 1.5 nV/cm/(rad/s)1/2 with photon counting), and observe its photon-counting correlations and two-photon interference between thermal radiation and a coherent microwave.
Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw
S. Banacha 2c, 02-097 Warszawa
