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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho did Lu Chao-Yang call when his phone was broken? Yang one else.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lu Chao-Yang
陆朝阳
Born1982 (age 43–44)
Zhejiang, China
EducationUniversity of Science and Technology of China
University of Cambridge
Known forJiuzhang quantum computer
Multiphoton entanglement
AwardsFresnel Prize (2017)
Adolph Lomb Medal (2020)
APS Landauer–Bennett Award (2021)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Science and Technology of China
Thesis Quantum dot resonance fluorescence and spin dynamics[1]  (2011)
Mete Atatüre[1]
Other academic advisors
Pan Jianwei[2]
Websitestaff.ustc.edu.cn/~cylu/

Lu Chao-Yang (born 1982[3]) is a Chinese physicist whose work focuses on quantum technology.[4] Described as "a wizard of entangled photons" by Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger, Lu is also known for his work on quantum teleportation, including co-leading the development of the Jiuzhang photonic quantum computer with his frequent collaborator Pan Jianwei.[5]

Early life and education

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Born in China's Zhejiang province in 1982, Lu grew up in a rural part of Jinhua and attended Dongyang High School.[6] He decided to study physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) after hearing a lecture by Pan Jianwei about quantum teleportation.[7]

Lu began working with Pan during his third undergraduate year at USTC, after the two met at a dinner party.[8] Describing the landscape for his early work with Pan, Lu told an interviewer, "Quantum technology was far less hot then, and we had much less funding. Our motivation was not so ambitious as to build a practical quantum computer but to investigate fundamental questions in quantum technology."[8]

Encouraged by Pan to study abroad,[4] in 2008 Lu left USTC (after earning a master's degree there) for the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, his focus shifted from manipulating photons to creating reliable sources of research-grade single photons.[9][10]

In 2011, after earning his Ph.D from Cambridge, Lu returned to USTC as a professor.[4] He was part of the first cohort of China's Thousand Talents Program for Young People, a talent recruitment program aimed at bringing young researchers to China.[11]

Multiphoton entanglement

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Science is step by step. First, you make the impossible thing possible. Then you work to make it more perfect. — Lu Chao-Yang, Scientific American, August 14, 2019

Quantum entanglement is one of the strangest prediction of quantum physics; Einstein called it dismissively "spooky action at a distance" (spukhafte Fernwirkung).[12] Quantum particles are said to be entangled when their properties are so completely correlated that, even if the particles are far apart, measuring one gives information about its entangled partners.[13]

During his early years at USTC, Lu focused on entangled photons. For example, he used four entangled photons to demonstrate Shor's factoring algorithm[14] and in 2007 led the first team to entangle six photons.[15] Anton Zeilinger, whose work on photon entanglement won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, has called Lu "a wizard of entangled photons."[4]

Quantum teleportation uses entangled photons to transmit quantum properties across long distances. Already in 1997, scientists teleported a single quantum property, but not until 2015 were Lu and Pan able to teleport two quantum properties simultaneously, an achievement called "herculean" by Physics World, which recognized it as 2015's "Breakthrough of the Year."[16][17]

To teleport two properties required hyper-entangling two photons; to teleport three properties would require controlling ten photons.[16] By 2019, Lu and Pan could control 20 indistinguishable photons, described in Physics as "a milestone in the field of quantum computing."[18]

Lu was closely involved in the project that designed and launched China's Micius Satellite. The satellite, launched in 2017, uses entangled photons to enable quantum key distribution over global distances.[19] The satellite is also used for quantum experiments in space.[20][21]

Single-photon sources

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Quantum computing, when done with photons as "qubits," requires reliable single-photon sources.[22][23] The ideal is "an on-demand, deterministic, single-photon source delivering light pulses in a well-defined polarization and spatiotemporal mode, and containing exactly one photon."[24]

During his graduate-school years at Cambridge, Lu worked on developing quantum dots as single-photon sources, using resonance fluorescence to generate spin-selective photons.[25] When he returned to USTC in 2011, he set up a new laboratory to work with such solid-state quantum light sources.[26] Much of that work focused on improving the reliability and output of single photons generated by quantum dots.[23]

To improve the efficiency of single-photo generation, Lu's team has done much work to reduce photon loss. One 2019 paper,[27] described in Nature Photonics as "groundbreaking research" and "a milestone achievement...a single-photon source that emits polarized single photons with an efficiency of greater than 50%, while approaching near-unity indistinguishability."[28]

In 2020, Lu was working to improve the scalability of quantum-dot photon sources to use them on boson-sampling for quantum computing.[7]

In 2025, Lu's team achieved a milestone in dealing with photon loss, bringing it below the desired threshold.[10]

Jiuzhang photonic computer

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Jiuzhang (Chinese: 九章) is the first photon-based quantum computer to claim quantum supremacy -- in other words, it is a quantum computer able to solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in a reasonable amount of time. Previously quantum supremacy has been achieved only once, in 2019, by Google's Sycamore. Google's computer, however, was based on superconducting materials, and not photons.[29] Describing the difference between Jiuzhang and Google's Sycamore, Scientific American explained, "Sycamore uses superconducting loops of metal to form qubits; in Jiŭzhāng, the photons themselves are the qubits."[30]

In 2020, a team of Chinese authors led by Lu together with Pan Jianwei[5] reported achieving quantum supremacy with their photonic quantum computer, which they had named "Jiuzhang" for an ancient mathematical text.[31] Describing their results, Philip Ball in Nature reported that the team "could find solutions to the boson-sampling problem in 200 seconds. They estimate these would take 2.5 billion years to calculate on China’s TaihuLight supercomputer — a quantum advantage of around 10^14."[5]

After 2020, Pan and Lu continued to improve the Jiuzhang setup and performance.[32] In 2026, according to the South China Morning Post, USTC scientists reported that their current version Jiuzhang 4.0 "completed a Gaussian boson sampling task in just 25 microseconds – a calculation they estimated would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan in the United States, more than 10^42 years to finish."[33]

Lu has chided colleagues for "overhyping" quantum computers, comparing the problem of controlling qubits to trying to make 10 kittens stand in a line.[34] China Daily quotes him as saying, "Building a quantum computer is a race between humans and nature, not between countries."[35]

Recognition

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Curriculum Vitae of Chao-Yang Lu" (PDF). Nishina Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  2. ↑ "Chao-yang Lu". Fudan Institute for Advanced Study. Retrieved March 10, 2026. During his graduate studies under the supervision of Jian-Wei Pan and Mete Atature, he studied multi-photon entanglement and optically active quantum dots.
  3. ↑ "Chaoyang Lu | Optica". www.optica.org. Retrieved 2026-03-10. Lu was born in 1982 in Zhejiang, China. He obtained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2004, and obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 2011. He is currently a Professor of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China. His research focuses on quantum foundations, quantum computation, and quantum communications.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Science stars of China". Nature. 534 (7608): 456–461. June 1, 2016. doi:10.1038/534456a. ISSN 1476-4687. The 33-year-old, a physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, is noted for his work with 'entanglement', in which the quantum states of different particles are linked regardless of how far apart they are...Those achievements led Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, to call Lu a 'wizard of entangled photons'. He has also done groundbreaking work with his mentor, Pan Jian-Wei, in the related phenomenon of quantum teleportation, in which a quantum state is transported from one particle to another.
  5. 1 2 3 Ball, Philip (December 3, 2020). "Physicists in China challenge Google's 'quantum advantage'". Nature. 588 (7838): 380. Bibcode:2020Natur.588..380B. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-03434-7. PMID 33273711. The Hefei team, led by Pan and Chao-Yang Lu, chose a different problem for its demonstration, called boson sampling.
  6. ↑ "恩师的一条短信，让"量子鬼才"陆朝阳毅然回国：我不能置身事外" [A message from his mentor convinced “quantum prodigy” Lu Chaoyang to return to China]. Sina News (in Chinese). October 6, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2026. In 1998, physicist Pan Jianwei was invited by his alma mater, Dongyang High School, to give a lecture in quantum physics. It was at this time that Lu Chaoyang was deeply moved by the mysterious new world described by the passionate scientist on the podium.(translated from Chinese)
  7. 1 2 "A quantum revolution". Physics World. September 2, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2026. I had an interest in physics at high school and just before the Chinese New Year in 1998, our school invited Jian-Wei Pan to give a public science lecture that was held in the largest cinema in Dongyang in Zhejiang province. At the time Pan was in Anton Zeilinger's group at Innsbruck University in Austria and they had just reported their first quantum-teleportation experiments.
  8. 1 2 3 "Quantum Scientist Wins APS Prize". American Physical Society. July 1, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2026. Chao-Yang Lu received the 2021 APS Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing, for 'significant contributions to optical quantum information sciences, especially on solid-state quantum light sources, quantum teleportation, and optical quantum computing.'
  9. ↑ "A Quantum Revolution". Physics World. September 2, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2026. I then studied physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei and joined Pan's group where I worked on a number of interesting problems such as six-photon entanglement, quantum simulation of anyons and teleportation of quantum-logic gates. In 2008 I moved to the University of Cambridge in the UK to do a PhD before moving back to USTC in 2011.
  10. 1 2 "High-efficiency single-photon source above the loss-tolerant threshold for efficient linear optical quantum computing". Nature Photonics. 19: 387–391. February 28, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41566-025-01639-8. Retrieved July 2, 2026. Photon loss is the biggest problem for scalable photonic quantum information processing. This issue can be tackled through quantum error correction, provided that the overall photon loss is below a threshold of one-third...Single photons are fast-flying, can be operated at room temperature and have very weak interactions with the environment; however, they can be easily lost either due to inefficient photon sources and detectors, or in the lossy photonic circuits. This represents arguably the biggest challenge to universal photonic quantum computing.
  11. ↑ "Chao-Yang Lu". Chinese Academy of Sciences (in Chinese). Retrieved July 3, 2026. (translated) In 2011, he was selected as a Churchill College Fellow and one of the first recipients of the National Thousand Talents Program for Young People. (2011年入选丘吉尔学院 Fellow、首批中组部国家青年千人计划)
  12. ↑ "What is spooky action at a distance?". The Economist. March 16, 2027. Retrieved July 19, 2026. Some subatomic interactions give rise to new pairs of particles flying off in different directions. Each of these, the theory said, could not be individually described: query one and you learn something instantaneously about the other, even if it is in a galaxy far, far away.
  13. ↑ "Quantum entanglement wins Nobel physics laurels". The Economist. October 4, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2026. Their work revolves around a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, in which two or more particles become correlated with each other so that they behave as if they were single units. This leads to counterintuitive effects—changing the properties of one particle in an entangled pair, for example, will immediately change the other, no matter how far apart the particles are.
  14. ↑ Lu, Chao-Yang; Browne, Daniel E.; Yang, Tao; Pan, Jian-Wei (December 21, 2007). "Demonstration of a Compiled Version of Shor's Quantum Factoring Algorithm Using Photonic Qubits". Physical Review Letters. 99 (25). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.250504. Retrieved July 2, 2026. We report an experimental demonstration of a compiled version of Shor's algorithm using four photonic qubits... This experiment represents an important step toward full realization of Shor's algorithm and scalable linear optics quantum computation.
  15. ↑ "The quest for quantum certainty" (PDF). Science News. Vol. 178, no. 10. November 13, 2010. pp. 22–25. Retrieved July 3, 2026. 2007: Zeilinger and colleagues set a distance record by sending entangled photons across 144 kilometers, between two of the Canary Islands. Chao-Yang Lu and colleagues also entangle six photons, a record number.
  16. 1 2 3 "Double quantum-teleportation milestone is Physics World 2015 Breakthrough of the Year". Physics World. December 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2026. The Physics World 2015 Breakthrough of the Year goes to Jian-Wei Pan and Chaoyang Lu of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, for being the first to achieve the simultaneous quantum teleportation of two inherent properties of a fundamental particle – the photon.
  17. ↑ Commissariat, Tushna (December 9, 2019). "A decade of Physics World breakthroughs: 2015 – double quantum-teleportation milestone". Physics World. Retrieved June 8, 2026. Pan and colleagues' 2015 award-winning experiment achieved precisely this, as they showed that they could reliably and repeatedly teleport a photon's spin (polarization) and its orbital angular momentum (OAM) to another photon some distance away, at the same time.
  18. ↑ "Synopsis: Quantum Computers Approach Milestone for Boson Sampling". Physics. December 18, 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2026. Jian-Wei Pan and Chao-Yang Lu, from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, and their collaborators have created an optical system that processes up to 20 photons...This enormous possibility space—ten orders of magnitude greater than that achieved previously—is sampled and validated by the team's inherently quantum-computational setup in a matter of minutes; a classical supercomputer would take hours to verify the results.
  19. ↑ "Ground-to-satellite quantum teleportation". Nature. 549: 70–73. August 9, 2017. doi:10.1038/nature23675. Retrieved June 8, 2026. Quantum teleportation enables unknown quantum states to be transferred reliably from one object to another over long distances, without physical travelling of the object itself.
  20. ↑ Garisto, Dan (August 6, 2019). ""Qutrit" Experiments Are a First in Quantum Teleportation". Scientific American. Retrieved July 18, 2026. 'Science is step by step. First, you make the impossible thing possible,' Lu says. 'Then you work to make it more perfect.'
  21. ↑ Lu, Chao-Yang; Cao, Yuan; Peng, Cheng-Zhi; Pan, Jian-Wei (July 6, 2022). "Micius quantum experiments in space". Reviews of Modern Physics. 94 (3). doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.94.035001. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Linear optical quantum computing with photonic qubits". Reviews of Modern Physics. 79 (1): 135–174. January 2007. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.79.135. Optical quantum systems are prominent candidates for quantum computing, since they provide a natural integration of quantum computation and quantum communication.... In order to distribute quantum information over a network of quantum computers, the qubit of choice will most likely be optical.
  23. 1 2 "Practical source of single photons". Nature. 529: 258. January 21, 2016. doi:10.1038/529258b. Single-photon sources are essential for quantum computers that encode information in light...Chao-Yang Lu and Jian- Wei Pan at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai and their colleagues used a laser to excite an artificial atom in a semiconductor crystal, known as a quantum dot. By using finely tuned laser pulses, they produced individual photons with near-perfect uniformity. They crafted the crystal into a tiny pillar-shaped cavity to maximize the number of photons that escaped.
  24. ↑ "High-performance semiconductor quantum-dot single-photon sources". Nature Nanotechnology. 12 (11): 1026–1039. November 2017. doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.218. Single photons are a fundamental element of most quantum optical technologies. The ideal single-photon source is an on-demand, deterministic, single-photon source delivering light pulses in a well-defined polarization and spatiotemporal mode, and containing exactly one photon.
  25. ↑ "Spin-resolved quantum-dot resonance fluorescence". Nature Physics. 5 (3): 203–207. March 2009. doi:10.1038/nphys1182. ...the excitations of self-assembled quantum dots can interact with near-infrared photons, providing an interface between stationary and 'flying' qubits. Here, we report the observation of spin-selective photon emission from a resonantly driven quantum-dot transition.
  26. ↑ "Chaoyang Lu". Innovators Under 35. MIT Technology Review. 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2026. During his time as a Ph.D. candidate, Chaoyang first observed real-time quantum transitions and non-destructive measurements of single electron spins, solving a fundamental problem for spin-based quantum computation schemes. After returning to China, he maintained a close cooperative relationship with Jianwei Pan's team, and led several young students to set up a new laboratory for solid state quantum light sources.
  27. ↑ "Towards optimal single-photon sources from polarized microcavities". Nature Photonics. 13: 770–775. August 5, 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2026.
  28. ↑ "News & Views: The quest for a perfect single-photon source". Nature Photonics. 13: 734–736. October 25, 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2026.
  29. ↑ Conover, Emily (December 3, 2020). "The new light-based quantum computer Jiuzhang has achieved quantum supremacy". Science News. Retrieved June 6, 2026. Google's computer, however, is based on superconducting materials, not photons.
  30. ↑ Garisto, Dan (December 3, 2020). "Light-Based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers". Scientific American. Retrieved June 8, 2026. Physicists led by Chao-Yang Lu and Jian-Wei Pan, both at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, performed a technique called Gaussian boson sampling with their quantum computer, named Jiuzhang.
  31. ↑ "Quantum computational advantage using photons". Science. 370 (6523): 1460–1463. December 18, 2020. doi:10.1126/science.abe8770. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  32. ↑ "Prototype sets record for optical quantum information technology". Phys.org. Retrieved June 7, 2026. Chinese scientists have developed a programmable quantum computing prototype called Jiuzhang 4.0 that has set a new world record for optical quantum information technology
  33. ↑ Liu, Zhen (May 15, 2026). "Does China's Jiuzhang 4.0 computer herald the age of quantum supremacy?". South China Morning Post. Retrieved June 6, 2026. Unlike the superconducting quantum computers pursued by American technology companies such as Google, IBM and Microsoft, the Jiuzhang series follows a photonic approach, using light particles instead of superconducting qubits.
  34. ↑ Witt, Stephen (December 12, 2022). "The World-Changing Race to Develop the Quantum Computer". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 6, 2026. Lu..pulled up a video clip of a woman attempting to arrange ten kittens in a line...'You want to control multiple qubits with high precision," Lu said, "but they should be very well isolated from the environment.'
  35. ↑ "China's quantum computer prototype Jiuzhang claims quantum advantage". China Daily. December 10, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2026. Building a quantum computer is a race between humans and nature, not between countries.
  36. ↑ "EPS Quantum Electronics and Optics Division Prizes". European Physical Society. Retrieved March 11, 2026. The EPS Fresnel Prize - Fundamental aspects awarded to one or more persons for their outstanding contributions to quantum electronics and optics in basic physics or applied sciences, for works published before the age of 35.
  37. ↑ "Lu Chaoyang Honored with Fresnel Prize". USTC. June 23, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2026.
  38. ↑ "Satellite-based entanglement distribution over 1200 kilometers". Science. 356 (6343): 1140–1144. June 16, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2026. the Micius satellite...successfully demonstrated the satellite-based entanglement distribution to receiver stations separated by more than 1200 km. The results illustrate the possibility of a future global quantum communication network.
  39. ↑ "Newcomb Cleveland Prize Recipients". AAAS. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  40. ↑ "Adolph Lomb Medal". Optical Society of America. Retrieved March 11, 2026.
  41. ↑ "James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership". Optica Foundation. Retrieved July 2, 2026. Established in 2014, the James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership provides funding for an invited talk on Quantum Information and Quantum Optics at CLEO.
  42. ↑ "Quantum computational advantage using photons". Science. 370 (6523): 1460–1463. 2020. doi:10.1126/science.abe8770.
  43. ↑ "IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award". IEEE Photonics Society. Retrieved July 25, 2026. Recognizes outstanding technical contributions to quantum electronics, either in fundamentals, applications, or in both.
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