Christopher Foy — Thesis Defense: Solid-State Spin-Integrated Circuits for Quantum Sensing and Control

Solid-State Spin-Integrated Circuits for Quantum Sensing and Control

Dirk R. Englund

Spin systems are an increasingly important quantum-sensing platform. In particular, atomic defect centers in diamond called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers offer impressive room temperature imaging capabilities for both magnetic field and temperature. NV-based sensing platforms have found utility in solid-state physics, biological systems, and vector magnetometry. These applications highlight the immense promise of NV quantum sensors. Despite this promise, the use of NV centers within commercial devices remains limited to date, with many impediments to transitioning this platform from the laboratory.

In this defense, I develop solid-state spin-integrated circuits (S3IC) for quantum sensing and control with the overarching goal of creating scalable NV platforms. We present two major experiments that develop S3IC. These expand the application space of NV centers and improve device functionality. The first application was to develop an NV spin microscope capable of wide-field temperature and magnetic field imaging to elucidate functional device behavior at the microscopic scale. The second experiment was integrating the essential components of an NV spin microscope, spin control and detection, with integrated electronics. In this manner, S3IC combines the exceptional sensitivity of NV centers with the robustness and scalability of modern electronic chip-scale platforms. This co-integration of spin systems into integrated electronics shows a potential path for migrating previous proof-of-principal sensing demonstrations into affordable packages that demonstrate both much greater system integration and custom electronic architectures. In short, this work demonstrates advances in NV-ensemble quantum sensing platforms and establishes a foundation for future integration efforts, perhaps inspiring innovations in both application space and the development of new quantum devices.

Apr 28, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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