Title: Quantum metrology meets chemical microscopy
Abstract:
The nexus of quantum information science and chemistry is rapidly developing. In our lab we have found it fruitful to view the microscopy of molecules as an exercise in quantum metrology, even under seemingly “messy” conditions. I will discuss how this line of thought has led us to establish fundamental error bounds for microscopy tasks including the resolution of fluorophore lifetime mixtures and the discrimination of enantiomers by their chiroptical emission. In particular, I will discuss our lab’s recent experimental demonstration of a passive, “quantum-inspired” approach to super-resolution microscopy, circumventing “Rayleigh’s Curse” without requiring active control of fluorescent labels. Finally, I will discuss how we’ve repurposed common organic dyes as photoswitchable spin qubits for nanoscale magnetic resonance studies by interfacing them with single, shallow nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.
Bio:
Mikael got his BS from UC Berkeley followed by a PhD from Stanford where he worked in the lab of W. E. Moerner. He then did his postdoc with Ron Walsworth at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics before starting his independent career at UIUC in the Department of Chemistry. He is also a member of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST) and the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology. His honors and awards include a Starter Grant Award from the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, an NSF CAREER award, and the Beckman Young Investigator award.