Title: Photogeneration and Control of Molecular Electron Spin Qubits for Quantum Information Applications
Abstract: We will describe recent work from our laboratory that focuses on using photo-driven processes to generate entangled electron spins in molecular materials targeting applications in quantum computing, communications, and sensing. We will describe how ultrafast photogeneration of electron-hole pairs within covalent electron donor-acceptor systems results in two entangled spins having sufficiently long coherence times to perform quantum gate operations and to teleport a prepared quantum state on a third spin to one of the spins comprising the entangled pair. We will describe how chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) strongly influences the spin dynamics of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in donor-chiral bridge-acceptor molecules. Finally, we will show how stable molecular diradicals can serve as surrogates for nitrogen vacancy defect centers in diamond.
Bio: Michael R. Wasielewski is the Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. He is also Director of the Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) and Director of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction (CMQT), a US-DOE Energy Frontier Research Center at Northwestern. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. His research has resulted in over 820 publications and focuses on light-driven processes in molecules and materials, artificial photosynthesis, molecular electronics, quantum information science, ultrafast optical spectroscopy, and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. He is member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the recipient of numerous awards.
Keywords: electron transfer, photophysics, photochemistry, quantum coherence, electron spins
Host: Randall Goldsmith