A course from zero: why we need quantum computers, what light and photons are, the maths you need, the instruments of an optics lab, and how qubits compute. Short lessons, one idea each, with figures to play with and experiments on a virtual optical table.
What a classical computer does, where it stops, and what a quantum computer promises (and what it does not).
From waves to photons, the way physics got there: interference, the photoelectric effect, and light that travels like a wave and arrives as particles.
Probability, complex numbers as arrows that add and turn, vectors and projections, and the rule that turns arrows into probabilities.
Lasers, mirrors, beam splitters, polarizers, wave plates and single-photon detectors: what they do and how.
One photon at a time, interference and measurement. The lab already has these experiments.
From a photon to the unit of quantum information; the Bloch sphere, true randomness and quantum cryptography.
Complex vectors, matrices, unitaries and Dirac notation.
The optical table as a quantum computer, and the first algorithm.
Bell states, Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and the Bell test.
CNOT, universal gate sets, and why photons need tricks.
Bernstein-Vazirani, Grover, the Fourier transform and Shor, with realistic expectations.
Decoherence, noise and how logical qubits are built from physical ones.
Photons, trapped ions, neutral atoms, superconducting circuits and spins.
From circuits to code with Qiskit and PennyLane.