In the HiPEQ project, a consortium of industry and research partners has developed new laser-based approaches to enable miniaturized, robust beam sources for quantum technology. Among others, the consortium also used lasers to grow novel optical insulator crystals. The project achieved significant progress from November 2021 to July 2025. Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen played a key role by co-developing the laser processes needed.

Today’s computers store information using only two values: 0 and 1. But as electronic devices become smaller and reach their limits, scientists are searching for new ways to pack more information into the same space. One idea is to use magnetism. In some materials, atoms behave like tiny magnets that can arrange themselves in different patterns. If each pattern represents a different value, one memory element could store more than just two possibilities.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a novel image projection system that delivers super-resolution images over an extended depth of field. By combining a neural network-based digital encoder with a passive all-optical diffractive decoder, the system drastically compresses image data for efficient transmission of image information. This platform operates without extra power at the decoding stage, promising advancements for next-generation virtual and augmented reality displays.

Quantum technologies promise powerful new kinds of computers, giving scientists new tools to mimic and explore nature at its tiniest scales. At those levels, everything in nature—from atoms and electrons to light itself—follows the strange rules of quantum mechanics. But the real world is never perfectly clean: Signals fade, energy leaks away and systems pick up noise from their surroundings.