Communications of the ACM
Research Team Unlocks Path to a Quantum Future
Artist's illustration of hydrodynamical behavior from an interacting ensemble of quantum spin defects in diamond.
Credit: Norman Yao / Berkeley Lab
Researchers are developing new pathways to create and protect quantum coherence. Doing so will enable exquisitely sensitive measurement and information processing devices that function at ambient or even extreme conditions.
Working through the Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials (NPQC), scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Argonne National Laboratory, and Columbia University are leading the way to understand and manipulate coherence in a variety of solid-state systems. Their threefold approach focuses on developing novel platforms for quantum sensing; designing two-dimensional materials that host complex quantum states; and exploring ways to precisely control a material's electronic and magnetic properties via quantum processes. Developing the ability to manipulate coherence could provide alternate quantum bit, sensing, or optical technologies.
An NPQC focus is quantum platforms based on specific flaws in a material's structure called spin defects, imperfections which can be used to make high-precision sensing platforms. The researchers found that spin moves around in the quantum mechanical system in almost the same way that dye moves in a liquid. This provided a successful path toward understanding quantum coherence.
The researchers describe their work in "Emergent Hydrodynamics In a Strongly Interacting Dipolar Spin Ensemble," published in the journal Nature.
From Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
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