Paolo Villoresi
Born in Treviso, Italy, in 1962, he studied Physics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Padova. He is a Full Professor of Physics (Professore Ordinario) at the University of Padova, where he currently teaches Quantum Optics and related subjects.
- Director and Founding member of the Padua Quantum Technologies Research Center.
- Member of the Board of Stakeholders of the European Technological platform Photonics21
- National delegate for Action COST Nanoscale Quantum Optics
- Deputy National Delegate for COST Action Quantum Physics in Space
- Member of the Executive Board of Department of Information Engineering, UniPD.
- Member of the Advisory Committee of Scientific and Technological institutions.
Selected current research activities in Experimental Quantum Communications, as Group coordinator:
- Principal investigator for the I-QKD Italian quantum communication in-orbit validation satellite (Italian Space Agency)
- OpenQKD EU Testbed for Quantum Communications - Italian node coordinator.
- Project coordinator for three development projects on Space Quantum Communication payload for the Italian Space Agency (2016-2022).
- Development and patenting of Quantum Random Number Generators QRNG – 17 Gbps record rate generated so far. (2014-2019)
- First demonstration of Quantum Communications from an orbiting transmitter on a LEO satellite using polarization and temporal degrees of freedom (2010-2016).
- Fundamental experiments in wave-particle duality of photons in Space: Wheeler "Delayed Choice" experiment (2016-2017).
- Q-Space Experiment: first demonstration of single-photon link between a satellite and the Earth (2003-2008).
- Canary 143 km Inter-island link experiment: Experimental demonstration of Quantum Key Distribution with mitigation of turbulence effects (2010-2015)
- Single photon exchange from a MEO satellite (2015).
- Aberration cancellation in quantum interferometry (2006-2009)
- Adaptive optics for entanglement generation and control (2008-2014)
Past research activities includes:
- Experimental study of the interaction of matter with radiation, in the area of ultrashort and ultrafast laser pulses: strongly nonlinear optical effects as high-order laser harmonics generation and optical ionization;
- Phenomena depending on the absolute phase of the radiation, asymmetry in the multiphoton ionization, researches in the generation and characterization of attosecond pulses, (1997-2013).
- Adaptive optics application in ultrafast pulse generation (2008-2013)
Author of more than a hundred seventy publications on peer-refereed journals, including Nature and Science, on encyclopaedia and editor of 2 books. Coauthor of more than 200 congresses contribution in the areas of Quantum Communication, Quantum Optics, laser-matter interaction and Atomic and Plasma Physics.
He served as supervisor of 17 PhD project (3 in progress), 7 as co-supervisor (4 in progress) and supervisor of 88 Master students (3 in progress).
Invited speaker in all continents and Referee for research projects internationally.
He is an Associate Editor of Scientific Reports (Nature Pub.)
Served as coordinator in several national and international research projects, including the area of quantum communication, attosecond Physics, application of laser in Medicine and Industry.
Coauthor of 12 industrial patents and patent applications on topics ranging from technological and medical applications of lasers and optics to practical exploitation of quantum processes.
Awards and Prizes
- Winner of the first prize, with team VIVA, of STARTCUP 2002 - L'idea diventa impresa, the first competition among Italian Universities on best proposal that exploits for business a research idea, July 4, 2002, now Premio Nazionale per l’Innovazione.
- Selected for one of the 20 ideas of national relevance for the 2nd National Day for the Research, Rome, Oct. 1, 2003.
- Winner of the first prize ex-aequo of the 4-th Premio Regionale per l’Innovazione on July 7, 2004.
Publications
Journal Articles
High-performance heterodyne receiver for quantum information processing in a laser-written integrated photonic platform Journal Article
In: Advanced Photonics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 016009, 2026.
Time-resolved certification of frequency-bin entanglement over multi-mode channels Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Information, 2026, ISBN: 2056-6387.
Quantum bounds and device-independent security with rank-one qubit measurements Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Information, vol. 12, no. 1, 2026.
A Sagnac-based Arbitrary Time-Bin State Encoder for Quantum Communication Applications Journal Article
In: EPJ Quantum Technol., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 129, 2025, ISSN: 2662-4400, 2196-0763.
In: EPJ Quantum Technol., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 78, 2025, ISSN: 2662-4400, 2196-0763.
Intermodal Quantum Key Distribution Field Trial with Active Switching between Fiber and Free-Space Channels Journal Article
In: EPJ Quantum Technol., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 6, 2025, ISSN: 2662-4400, 2196-0763.
Radiation Hardness Properties and DCR Reduction via Laser Annealing of InGaAs/InP SPADs for Space Applications Journal Article
In: Opt. Express, vol. 33, no. 23, pp. 47876, 2025, ISSN: 1094-4087.
Power-Consumption Back Door in Quantum Key Distribution Journal Article
In: Phys. Rev. Applied, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 054004, 2025, ISSN: 2331-7019.
A Passive and Self-Characterizing Cross-Encoded Receiver for Reference-Frame-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Journal Article
In: Optica Quantum, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 389, 2025, ISSN: 2837-6714.
Hybrid Encoder for Discrete and Continuous Variable QKD Journal Article
In: Adv Quantum Tech, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 2400522, 2025, ISSN: 2511-9044, 2511-9044.
Energy-Time and Time-Bin Entanglement: Past, Present and Future Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Inf, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 129, 2025, ISSN: 2056-6387.
Low-Error Encoder for Time-Bin and Decoy States for Quantum Key Distribution Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Inf, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 22, 2025, ISSN: 2056-6387.
High-Speed Source-Device-Independent Quantum Random Number Generator on a Chip Journal Article
In: Optica Quantum, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 111, 2025, ISSN: 2837-6714.
A Time-to-Digital Converter With Steady Calibration Through Single-Photon Detection Journal Article
In: IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 74, pp. 1–9, 2025, ISSN: 0018-9456, 1557-9662.
In-field Comparison between G.652 and G.655 Optical Fibres for Polarisation-based Quantum Key Distribution Journal Article
In: IET Quantum Communication, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 567–574, 2024, ISSN: 2632-8925, 2632-8925.
In: Phys. Rev. Research, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 043266, 2024, ISSN: 2643-1564.
Secure and Robust Randomness with Sequential Quantum Measurements Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Inf, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 94, 2024, ISSN: 2056-6387.
Experimental Post-Selection Loophole-Free Time-Bin and Energy-Time Nonlocality with Integrated Photonics Journal Article
In: Optica, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 498, 2024, ISSN: 2334-2536.
Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference of Single-Photon-Level Pulses Stored in Independent Room-Temperature Quantum Memories Journal Article
In: npj Quantum Inf, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 10, 2024, ISSN: 2056-6387.
Quantum-Secured Time Transfer between Precise Timing Facilities: A Field Trial with Simulated Satellite Links Journal Article
In: GPS Solut, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 48, 2024, ISSN: 1080-5370, 1521-1886.