Cycle of Quantum Innovation

This figure highlights the concept that pursuing advances in fundamental science often requires scientists to develop novel instrumental techniques and laboratory devices. At the next step in the cycle, those techniques and devices are often matured into well established technologies that are widely used but still suitable only for use in experimental laboratories. A third click around the cycle applies engineering principles and expertise to embed the new technologies in devices that are sufficiently robust and compact for use in commercial settings outside the lab, where they often find unanticipated practical applications. Many of those applications are in commercial sectors of the economy, while others are in an expanded set of research laboratories, thus completing one cycle of quantum innovation and laying the ground for the next.