The Quantum Photonics trade event took place for the first time at Messe Erfurt on 13 and 14 May 2025. As a congress trade fair, there was not only a trade exhibition, but also a high-level congress program with experts from the active field of quantum photonics. A total of around five hundred trade visitors attended the event, ensuring excellent discussions at the exhibition stands.

Photonic quantum technologies are regarded as a key technology for the world of tomorrow – for example for quantum cryptography, instrumental measurement technology and quantum computing. “Quantum technology systems and photonics are currently opening up revolutionary innovation potential in applied research and increasingly also in industrial applications,” emphasized Michael Kynast, managing director of Messe Erfurt, at the opening of the trade congress. Due to this great importance, the new trade fair aimed to bring together the key players in the field of quantum photonics over the two days of the trade fair and get them talking to each other. The Thüringer Aufbaubank was the sponsor and supporter of the specialist congress.

Well-known companies presented their innovative products at the trade exhibition in order to engage in discussions with their users as well as with representatives of the other exhibitors. By the end of the first day of the trade fair, the exhibitors were already very satisfied with the discussions. On site were Lasos Lasertechnik, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, Hamamatsu Photonics, Fiberware, AIM Micro Systems, Nanoplus, the Abbe Center of Photonics, the QuNET initiative, the CiS Research Institute for Microsensor Technology, SmarAct, X-Fab, Quantum Optics Jena, Layertec and others.

The high-level specialist congress was divided into four socially relevant areas: “Quantum for Cyber Security”, “Quantum meets AI”, “Quantum for Instrumentation and Measurement”,  and “Quantum for Mobility”. Professor Jaw-Shen Tsai from Tokyo University of Science gave the cross-thematic introduction on the topic of “Superconducting Kerr Parametric Oscillators based Bosonic Qubit - A Practical Quantum Information Processing Platform”.