The publication presents a concept for a nationwide research and development optical fibre infrastructure that would provide long-term access to optical fibre links for research in quantum technologies and time and frequency metrology. The infrastructure known as QFT-backbone is intended to support both fundamental and applied research by enabling experiments under realistic field conditions and by providing a platform for the development, testing and deployment of emerging quantum technologies.
The proposal is the result of several years of close collaboration between researchers from universities, research centres and industry across Germany. Prof. Klaus Blaum, Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, played an important role as one of the initiators of the project. It builds on Germany's long-standing expertise in time and frequency dissemination and outlines a roadmap for establishing a sustainable research infrastructure that could serve the growing needs of the German quantum technology community while strengthening connections to European initiatives.
The authors hope that the QTF Backbone proposal will stimulate further discussion on establishing this research infrastructure in Germany that complements these European developments and strengthens Germany's role in quantum technologies and precision metrology.
Original publication:
The QTF Backbone: Proposal for a Nationwide Optical Fibre Backbone in Germany for Quantum Technology and Time and Frequency Metrology
T. C. Liebisch et al.
The European Physical Journal Special Topics (2026), DOI: 10.1140/epjs/s11734-026-02451-3
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