Professor MPGU: American company thanks to our one-photon detectors earned 660 million dollars

The physics of quasi-particle relaxation in ultrathin superconducting films, terahertz mixers and single-photon detectors are all the achievements of Professor Grigory Holtzman, professor, doctor of physico-mathematical sciences of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, founder of Skontel LLC.



In 2009, Gregory Holtzman was nominated for the Van Duser Award . And in 2017, the first Russian scientist received the IEEE Award of the Superconductivity Council for his long and significant contribution to the study and development of applied superconductivity.

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The professor told us about his research, development, combination of science and entrepreneurship.



Interviewer: Arthur Anopolsky

Respondent: Grigory Holtzman



What designs have you won the IEEE Award for?



In my case, the contribution to applied superconductivity is threefold.



First, I contributed to fundamental research in the field of applied superconductivity. He investigated the relaxation of quasiparticles in a superconductor from the point of view of the electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions in ultrathin superconducting films.



Secondly, me and my employees own two new and practically demanded technologies. The first is the heart of the superheterodyne receiver of the frequency range above 1 THz. The receiver is used for observations in space and high-altitude observatories. In this range, cosmic dust, which is very abundant in space, does not interfere, so one can study, for example, how stars and planets are formed from a gas-dust cloud. Other frequencies do not allow so far to look into the Universe: low frequencies are blocked by the CMB, and higher frequencies — the visible range and part of the infrared — are covered by dust clouds.



The second technology is quantum: superconducting photon counters, which advanced research in quantum optics. Many new quantum technologies are built on them.



How are IEEE Award nominees determined?



The IEEE Award Committee acts on the same principle as the Nobel Prize Committee. No one applies to her on her own. The committee reviews nominees and selects who will receive the award. A list of all applicants will not be published.



Everyone who has received an award becomes a member of the committee. Now I will also choose the winners, and I will have the opportunity to better study the selection process.







In 2009, you together with Sergey Ryabchun and Raymond Blundell were nominated for the Van Duzer Award. What were you awarded for and how did your collaboration start?



We have prepared the article “Stabilization scheme for receivers on hot electrons using microwave radiation” - for which we received an award. It must be said that this award is not as prestigious as compared with the IEEE Award of the Superconductivity Council for its long and significant contribution to the study and development of applied superconductivity.



And our cooperation began in 1991, when Raymond moved from France to Boston and began working at Harvard University. On the basis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, we conducted research with terahertz mixers and astronomical instruments based on them in this region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Last year, Raymond retired and our collaboration ended. This collaboration also had the advantage of being supported by the Harvard pre-doc program. Under this program, once in 3 years, one of my graduate students received a three-year scholarship from Harvard University and, thus, before defending a thesis in Moscow, he spent 3 years with me at Moscow State Pedagogical University and 3 years with Raymond Blundell. Every three years I sent my graduate student to him, the third among them was Sergey Ryabchun. The first 2 work abroad, and the next 4 work at MPGU with me.



Why did you decide to do research in the field of applied physics of superconductors?



I didn’t start researching in this area right away. Before and after defending a PhD thesis, I worked for several years in the field of semiconductor physics. And only then, if I am not mistaken, in 1978, I decided to change the scientific direction to superconductivity.



In Soviet times, this area of ​​science was well developed in our country. It worked many well-known scientists, some of them later became Nobel laureates. These are Vitaly Ginzburg and Alexey Abrikosov. It is also the works from this field of Soviet physics that were most cited abroad. Probably, this was for me the main criterion in order to plunge into the sphere of superconductivity. Otherwise, under the USSR, it was impossible for me to enter the international arena, let alone work somewhere in Europe or the USA.



After the borders opened, I was able to meet with many distinguished scientists, whose research I was reading at the time. Soon I began working in international teams of specialists in different countries of the world.



Since this is still an applied area, it was necessary to find interesting fundamental solutions and to understand how the nature of superconductors is arranged, what interesting applied things can be done and how to put all this into practice.



What institutions and companies are you currently working at? How do you manage to combine professorship and entrepreneurship?



Now my main interest is the training of specialists. I work at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, here for many years a very good laboratory with infrastructure has been created. In addition, I organized a department at the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics for the training of engineers (now MIEM is a subdivision of the HSE). Many years ago, he founded the company “Superconducting Nanotechnologies” (LLC “Skontel”) and most recently the company “Terahertz and Infrared Photonics” (“TINFOTONIKA”).



How do you manage to combine? This gives a great synergistic effect. As a professor, I have to earn my research by receiving grants. Grants are unsustainable funding, and the purchase of consumables and equipment at universities is furnished with a huge number of bureaucratic procedures. A modern laboratory will not survive in science without basic funding, and in my university it is scanty. In addition, the necessary infrastructure that requires money, maintenance, consumables. An ordinary university in Russia cannot pull all this together, and the inclusion of companies unleashes many knots.



In the company "Skontel" you produce single-photon detectors. Where are they used?



With single photon detectors, we entered the market 15 years ago. They form the basis of a number of quantum technologies. One of them is the transfer of a quantum encryption key. In ground-based devices, it is transmitted over fiber and has a distance limit. The Chinese use this technology in free space - they distribute encryption keys from space. Quantum technology provides secure transmission. The Chinese use our detectors as they are the most efficient and fast in the world and they emit little noise. Perhaps soon China will produce them independently.



There are many more examples of use. The first quantum technology where our detectors were used was the American development of the beginning of the two thousand years. Its essence is to detect among the billion transistors of a large integrated circuit through a substrate a defective transistor or design errors. In 2003, our technology received a special prize from the American magazine RND magazine, which annually selects 100 technological breakthroughs in the world. In the future, on the basis of this technology, another one appeared, and the American company in three years earned 660 million dollars on it.





Products "Skontel". Photo: RBC



On what basis did you put together a team? What experts are needed to work in the laboratory?



The question of which specialists are needed does not arise, since we are working in a completely new field. There were only a few groups in the world that worked in this fundamental direction. Therefore, experts are created in the process. Further, these people can already move independently.



Until 2000, such teams did not make sense to create. Graduates found a good job abroad. Many continue to work there. Only after we learned to create successful companies in the field of high-tech, did stable teams begin to remain in their own companies.



How did you achieve such stability?



First you had to learn yourself. I worked in the USA, Europe, visited Japan and China, watched how such a process took place there, stuffed cones. At the same time he collaborated with a company that worked at our university. This is a separate science, which is not taught in any universities. It is given only by practice.



Since 1989, the company “Skaneks” has been working for us, which was also created by my teacher, and was headed by his younger son. The company bought licenses and manufactured instruments for receiving information from all flying satellites. The buyer could see any point on the globe in any wavelength range, where the satellites have the appropriate equipment, equipment. And all this was in great demand. We studied how this can work, and in Russia. By the year 2000, I realized that I was well versed in this matter and could establish my own companies.



You say that international experience has helped you to open a technical company in Russia. What are its components?



It is difficult to formulate all the components. There are a lot of factors. Europe also faces the same problem as Russia, when science develops, but not too many solutions are being transferred to practice. In the US, with this much better and more features.



I received a lot of information, including how to interact with people.



How can a young specialist get into the laboratory and work on real problems of quantum physics?



If we talk, for example, about a student, then you need to find a successfully working scientific group. In it, as a rule, there will be a leader, sometimes a professor, as well as other specialists at various levels - from students to more advanced professionals. To find such a scientific group is quite easy with the analysis of publications. Next you need to come into it, ring the doorbell, enter and say: I want to work. There, as a rule, they will say: “Come in.” After some time, it becomes clear that a person can, to what he has the ability. Some leave, others grow up and leave abroad, others remain. The main thing is aspiration.



Is there a scientific group in your lab?



Yes, and not one, but about five to seven groups. Each has its own leader. Often I join them, sometimes I work only with a new group. This is a typical practice for a science lab.



On March 1, you will speak at the Quantum Technology Conference . What will you talk about?



On quantum optical integrated circuits. I will talk in detail about the technology itself, as well as how to create a high-tech company and how to motivate people.