Research team with a compact ion accelerator

The research team with one of the ion accelerators that form quantum light emitters in silicon.

Applications of quantum information science in quantum sensing, networking, and computing require the precise control of highly coherent qubits. Color centers in semiconductors such as silicon and diamond are promising qubit candidates due to direct optical access and the potential to integrate increasing numbers of qubits with high precision and long spin coherence times.

FS&IBT is exploring novel qubit candidates and qubit synthesis approaches enabled by beams and plasmas. This includes new developments with conventional ion implantation and expands to the exploration of femtosecond-laser and laser-driven ion pulses for qubit and quantum materials synthesis. The work is connected to  the DOE Office of Science’s Quantum Application Network Testbed for Novel Entanglement Technology and through several quantum sensing projects.

Atomic structure model and a graph of emission

Left: A model of the atomic structure of the quantum light-emitting defect in silicon (grey), composed of two substitutional carbon atoms (black) and one silicon interstitial atom (pink). The size of the quantum emitter is about 1 nanometer ((1 billionth of a meter). Right: Spectra from quantum emitters show more intense light emission following exposure of a silicon crystal to a high flux of protons from intense pulses (black) compared to the conventional method of low flux exposure to protons over extended periods (blue).

Quantum sensing applications take advantage of the highly sensitive nature of coherent states in qubits. We are working on applying quantum sensing to detect small energy transfers in rare events, such as the search for dark matter and neutrino science. Together with colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley, we optimize the spin properties of color centers for remote sensing of electromagnetic fields.

We are also exploring novel qubit candidates and qubit architectures with spin-photon qubit candidates in silicon and diamond and the formation of novel spin textures in semiconductors.