News
Long Night of Research 2026: Quantum on the roads of Vienna
On a warm and sunny afternoon, we opened our booth at this year’s edition of the Long Night of Research, a public event that aims to showcase scientific research to the general public. Positioned at the street level in the inner city of Vienna, QOSiLICIOUS researchers from AIT took advantage of explaining the benefits of quantum technologies and the peculiarities behind photonics and quantum-optics to a wide audience. The visitors had the option to engage through various hands-on demonstrations, including a QKD-secured video link or a Snake-like game whose steering stick was designed as polarization controller, giving people a grip on the difficulties of accurately adjusting light polarization towards a target state. Moreover, cutting-edge technologies were highlighted as for example through the displaying of a precursor sample of our all-silicon QKD transmitter beneath a microscope. We noticed great interest in quantum technologies by the public, across a wide age range and until the late (nightly) closing hours. We are looking forward to the next edition of the event, which will open its gates again in two years.
Promoting STEM careers to young female students
QOSiLICIOUS researchers from AIT had the pleasure to welcome a group of female students in their lab in course of the Vienna Daughters’ Day, allowing them to showcase scientific work and to promote careers in STEM fields. Valeria Saggio, Bernhard Schrenk, Florian Honz and Manu Kos engaged the young students in a set of hands-on experiments that demonstrate physical concepts while explaining the challenges residing for optical technologies, including chip-scale quantum optics and fiber-optic transmission – for example by streaming music over a jet of water, building a microscope out of a water droplet, or by coupling light into a photonic chip themselves. Finally, the students had the opportunity to get a micron-precision measurement of their hair diameter, and to try on their skills in managing polarization of light in a Snake-like arcade game.
QOSiLICIOUS scores high at OFC 2026 in Los Angeles
QOSiLICIOUS was well represented at the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) conference, which with ~17,000 attendees marks the world-wide largest congress on optical telecommunications and datacenter technology. Two papers have been presented by AIT’s research team, demonstrating dynamic key allocation through a multi-granular assignment of QKD network resources such as spectrum and detection mode. Moreover, the sensitivity of multi-lane ribbon fibers to bend-induced crosstalk has been reported – which some of the attendees perceived as “scary results”.
It’s our great pleasure to be awarded with a “top-scored” paper following the paper review process, evidencing the novelty and impact of QOSiLICIOUS’ technological development.
How does a typical day look like when working in quantum photonics?
QOSiLICIOUS researchers Bernhard Schrenk and Florian Honz shed a bit of light on this important question to a group of students, who enjoyed their taster apprenticeships at AIT, Vienna.
Besides providing insights on the benefits that quantum technology will soon contribute to our daily live, the students were able to see first chip-scale solutions for quantum communication assets such as quantum key distribution. Moreover, the students took on the challenge of coupling visible light from a fiber waveguide to a photonic integrated circuit – a practical challenge that can be considered key to the daily lab work when addressing novel device technologies. We hope that the experiences made during these days will motivate some of our student group to take on a career path leading to a technical or scientific field.
Vivid Interaction with the Community at IPC Conference
In November 2025, project manager Valeria Saggio had the pleasure to present the concept behind QOSiLICIOUS to the wider photonics and quantum communication communities. The contribution through an invited talk at the IEEE Photonics Conference in Singapore enabled us to highlight the peculiarities of our all-silicon approach for QKD technology and to actively engage with the audience. We recognize the great interest of the community in elaborating on new application domains opened up by a disruptive simplification of applied QKD technology.
Showcasing Optics at the Glasgow Science Festival
QOSiLICIOUS Post-doctoral Research Associate Charlie Smith was involved in outreach activity at the Glasgow Science Festival, an annual STEM exhibition taking place across multiple venues in Glasgow. Charlie showcased an optical setup to teach school children and members of the public about the properties of light, providing the basic understanding of polarisation and interference necessary to understand quantum technologies such as QKD. The outreach activity is designed to inspire younger generations and also to highlight the key societal challenges that can be addressed by quantum technologies.
Solar-Blind QKD at High Noon
Can faint quantum signals survive the solar irradiance during peak daylight?
Yes, they can! Researchers from AIT have demonstrated the survivability of quantum key exchange over a terrestrial free-space link during daylight – despite the use of large-core fibers. To do so, the QOSiLICIOUS team has transferred the quantum channel to a spectral E-band region, in which an atmospheric absorption window clears out most of the solar irradiance. Since this spectral slice is still within the extended multi-band wavelength range of modern telecom systems, the complexity of the QKD system increases just marginally while solarblind key exchange can be performed.
Check out our journal article for more technical details.
Photons by Photons: Integrated Quantum Photonics featured by Quantum Society Austria
In the framework of the Quantum Talk Series hosted by the Quantum Society Austria, QOSiLICIOUS project coordinator Mariana Ramos gave an inspiring talk about the daily life as scientist and the challenges that are faced towards the realization of integrated quantum photonics. As one of the projects that aim at a wider impact towards commodity applications, QOSiLICIOUS contributed towards attracting young professionals to pursue careers in science, to eventually shape the next generation of top researchers.
The full talk can be watched online
Quantum Perspectives at World Quantum Day 2025
On World Quantum Day 2025, Martin Stierle from AIT represented QOSiLICIOUS in a panel discussion on the latest developments in quantum research, organized by FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency. Advances in component technologies that lead to disruptive miniaturization of QKD assets are a crucial ingredient to lay the roads for a successful and widespread deployment of quantum communication technology. The achievement of a functional precursor QKD transmitter that solely builds on silicon photonic integration has been highlighted towards this direction.
Quantum Career Day in Vienna
The Quantum Career Day for students, organized by the national technology platform Photonics Austria and the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology in April 2025, featured an inspiring talk by AIT researcher and QOSiLICIOUS project coordinator Mariana Ramos, who aimed at motivating students to pursue careers in quantum technology. This talk was complemented by a table-top demonstration of one of AIT’s QKD systems, allowing the students to experience and (partially) touch quantum technology in a live setting. We received very positive feedback by the students, who showed great interest in engaging with the local quantum community.
Quantum Satellite Workshop
During the Quantum Satellite Workshop organized by the European Space Agency in March 2025, QOSiLICIOUS was represented by project coordinator Mariana Ramos. She presented the project’s potential to revolutionize quantum communications through introducing its all-silicon component technology, which shows great potential for a disruptive simplification down to the level of microelectronics.
QOSiLICIOUS kickoff at the AIT headquarters
On February 17-18, we officially kicked off QOSiLICIOUS at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology headquarters in Vienna.
QOSiLICIOUS is a groundbreaking project focused on developing an all-silicon, optically active QKD solution. By eliminating the need for rare semiconductor materials, the project aims to simplify QKD integration, making it more cost-effective and scalable. As quantum computing evolves, this technology will play a key role in securing digital infrastructure, paving the way for QKD adoption in ICT networks and everyday devices like smartphones.
Led by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Nvidia (Israel), IHP – Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics, and the University of Glasgow, QOSiLICIOUS is funded by the EIC Pathfinder program, receiving €3.4M under Horizon Europe.