Russian physicist Alexey Kavokin became the first winner in the history of the country to receive the prestigious international award for the development of quantum devices that can provide Russia with technological leadership. How this is connected with the US-Chinese technological war – we will tell in this issue.

The first ever

Professor Alexei Kavokin, Head of the Laboratory of Spin Optics at St. Petersburg State University, became the first Russian scientist to receive the Quantum Devices Award. This award is presented for an innovative contribution in the field of complex semiconductor devices and devices with quantum nanostructures. Professor Kavokin predicted a process that allowed the creation of polariton lasers to open the way to the world of quantum computers. More details later, but for now we’ll move to the United States, where a new front in the fight against China is opened.

Washington lately hit again Chinese Huawei, barring all of its suppliers from using US equipment. This is a serious challenge that Huawei can leave without Taiwanese microchips, which practically takes the company out of the market. China is preparing an answer, and, for sure, it will be asymmetric. The Americans were seriously behind in the area of ​​developing 5G technologies, and at that time in China ZTE and the mobile operator China Unicom recently signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in the development of 6G technology. It is becoming more interesting.

We’ll continue after a short news flash.

The feed

The eleventh nuclear power plant in Russia was put into commercial operation. She is the northernmost in the world and in the world, made on a mobile floating basis.

The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle successfully launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome and launched the spacecraft into orbit.

The frigate Admiral Golovko of project 22350 was launched, with a completely Russian power plant replacing the Ukrainian one. 

Trials of the new strategic missile submarine cruiser Prince Vladimir successfully completed

New ZALA drone – a hybrid aircraft and helicopter type aircraft was introduced.

Sales of the new low-floor city minibus GAZelle City and the flagship model of KAMAZ trucks of a new generation have started.

In Kursk, mass production of industrial exoskeletons was launched.

A chemical production has been opened in Veliky Novgorod, cable production in the Leningrad Region, a pellet plant in the Novgorod Region, a fish factory in Chelyabinsk, a poultry processing enterprise in Dagestan, and a new dairy complex has been launched in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

New race

We venture to say that the technological race that has now escalated is tantamount to a nuclear race of the first half of the last century. It will be won by the one who will be the first to satisfy the world’s wildly growing appetite for pumping and fast processing of ever-increasing amounts of data. This has not only economic, but also military significance. Whoever quickly learns about the enemy’s plans and faster controls his troops, he dominates the world. So, our favourite Internet was born from the American military network ARPANET of the 1967 model. A few years earlier, the own project of the electronic network of academician Glushkov was submitted to the leadership of the USSR, but did not find support. As a result of this and other erroneous decisions, today we have what we have – the Americans not only dominate technologically, but also, without hesitation, beat the hands of everyone who is trying to encroach on their primacy.

But what is Russia doing at this time?

Problem of choice 

To be honest, Russia can’t keep up in the 5G technology race. However, like the United States do. Therefore, both in Washington and in Moscow there are proposals to skip this stage and proceed to the development of communication technologies of the sixth generation. The same with microelectronics. Only the lazy did not reproach the domestic industry, which is constantly in the position of catching up and cannot even come close to foreign competitors. But the fact is that foreign chip manufacturers have come to the limit of technological capabilities. The world’s leading institutes are now working on the creation of photonic integrated circuits. They are associated with 6G networks and quantum computers. Is it not better to direct all efforts in this direction, instead of investing billions in yesterday’s production?

But let’s return to Alexei Kavokin.

Liquid Light

Here is what the professor himself says about his work: “Russia is one of the world leaders in polaritonics – the field of physics dealing with light-material quasiparticles, or liquid light. It is on the basis of liquid light that we are developing polariton lasers – devices that can bring our country victory in the race for the development of quantum technologies. While the American giants like Google and IBM are investing billions in quantum technologies based on superconductors, we are moving along a much cheaper and potentially more promising way to develop a polariton platform for quantum computing. The award is evidence to me that our priority in the field of quantum polaritonics is recognised by the international scientific community”.

In other words, Russia already has a serious backlog in photonics and is an equal participant in this new technological race, which is appropriate to compare with the nuclear one. This means that there is every chance that the computers of the future will carry the stamp “Made in Russia”.