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Chemistry & Light Seminar
09 May 2023, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm
Using Light to Generate Molecular Spin Qubits for Quantum Information Science
Event Information
Open to
- UCL staff | UCL students
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Martijn Zwijnenburg
Location
-
XLG1 Chemistry Lecture TheatreChristopher Ingold Building20 Gordon StreetLondonWC1H 0AJUnited Kingdom
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 radical ion pairs within covalent organic electron donor-acceptor systems results in two entangled spins having sufficiently long coherence times to perform CNOT gate operations and to teleport a prepared quantum state on a third spin to one of the spins comprising the entangled pair. We will also describe recent work using photogenerated entangled spin pairs to serve as molecular electric field sensor. Finally, we will show how singlet exciton fission in single crystals of a molecular chromophore results in the formation of two spin-coherent triplet excitons that evolve into a long-lived spin quintet state potentially useful for quantum logic operations. These results illustrate the versatility of molecular materials in quantum information science.
About the Speaker
Michael R. Wasielewski
Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University
Michael R. Wasielewski is currently the Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern, and Director of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction, a US-DOE Energy Frontier Research Center. 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 770 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.
His honors and awards include membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday Lectureship Award, Physical Organic Chemistry Award, and Environment Prize; the Porter Medal for Photochemistry; the American Chemical Society Josef Michl Award in Photochemistry, James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award; the Bruker Prize in EPR Spectroscopy; the International EPR Society Silver Medal in Chemistry; the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists; and the Humboldt Research Award.