NSF Award
2326767
This QuSeC-TAQS project aims to promote the progress of science by developing new quantum sensing tools for studying physical phenomena, structure, and composition of materials. In a collaborative, multi-institutional effort, this team will use nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond as a large-scale quantum sensing platform for studying material systems. Specifically, the team will use simultaneous measurements of multiple NV centers to measure new quantities that are inaccessible by other methods. Developing new tools for understanding condensed matter systems has broad impacts on materials science, and on the ability to discover new phenomena and devices for quantum information science, microelectronics, energy harvesting, and other applications. This project will train a new generation of scientists that can traverse the boundaries between quantum information science, quantum nanoscale sensing, and condensed matter physics. The PIs will facilitate student and postdoc mobility across institutions and host an annual meeting to share techniques, catalyze new theoretical advances, and establish sensing protocols that can be rapidly disseminated to the community. At the undergraduate level, the PIs will collaborate on the design and implementation of an NV confocal microscope for new undergraduate quantum lab courses to allow students to implement a two-qubit gate using single NV centers, to demystify quantum technologies and increase the strength of the quantum workforce pipeline. All three participating institutions will also develop summer student projects based on this research aimed at broadening participation and accompanied by interdisciplinary directed readings to help students get the most out of summer research.<br/> <br/>This program has the transformative potential to establish nanoscale quantum sensors as a platform for studying local correlations in condensed matter systems. Spatially and temporally correlated phenomena play a central role in condensed matter physics, but in many cases there are no tools available that allow for measurements of correlations at the relevant length and time scales. This team aims to use NV centers in diamond as point sensors for measuring two-point magnetic field correlators. This novel quantum sensing platform will allow them to measure new physical quantities that are otherwise inaccessible with current tools. They will apply NV nanoscale covariance magnetometry, which the PIs have recently demonstrated in proof-of-principle experiments, to study condensed matter phenomena in a variety of contexts, and in parallel they will develop theoretical understanding of covariance magnetometry as well as systems engineering to realize a robust, large-scale sensing platform with new capabilities. Their demonstration of this quantum sensing platform will focus on understanding transport in graphene in the strongly interacting regime. The specific goals for this project are to apply covariance magnetometry using pairs of NV centers to study transport in state-of-the-art graphene and twisted bilayer graphene devices, explore the theoretical framework for covariance magnetometry and establish fundamental limits for different modes of operation from an information theoretic standpoint, and to create robust, large scale, multiplexed quantum sensors that are capable of measuring correlations among many pairs of NV centers simultaneously using camera-based readout and integrated devices. This project was co-funded by the Quantum Sensors Challenge for Transformative Advances in Quantum Systems (QuSeC-TAQS) program, and the Office of International Science and Engineering.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
