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When systems are engineered to relay or extend “quantum weirdness” from the nanoscopic scale of atoms to the macroscopic scale of humans amazing things can happen. In the last century humans engineered periodic atomic lattices with quantized electronic energies to create semiconductors with bandgaps, thereby enabling the transistor. Similarly, humans captured photons and optical gain media in cavities to create photonic Bose-Einstein condensates, i.e., lasers. These twentieth century quantum systems (the transistor and the laser) ushered in the computer age and the information age, which changed the world. The twenty-first century generation of quantum systems is just emerging, and the disruptive potential is equally tantalizing. Almost all these emergent quantum systems require lasers and photonics, representing both an opportunity and a challenge. In this talk I will discuss the complexity of the lasers-for-quantum space, present the technical and economic landscape, and pose possible paths forward for how lasers and photonics can usher in a new quantum age.
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