PME Distinguished Colloquium Series Seminar - Mete Atature
When:
Wednesday, June 1, 2022 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where:
ERC 161 (5640 S Ellis Ave) and Virtual
Speaker:
Mete Atature,
Cambridge University
Description:
Title: Shedding Light on Nuclear Spins- Through the looking-glass, and what we found there
Optically active spins in solids are often considered prime candidates for scalable and feasible quantum-optical devices. Numerous material platforms, including diamond, semiconductors, and atomically thin 2d materials, are investigated, where each platform brings its own advantages and challenges. Semiconductor quantum dots are the current state-of-the-art for optical properties such as tuneability, brightness, and indistinguishability. Their nickname "artificial atom" was coined historically to highlight how similar they can be to isolated single atoms, but in fact, they are far from the realization of a simple two-level system. The inherently mesoscopic nature of a quantum dot leads to a multitude of dynamics between spins, charges, vibrations, and light. In particular, it offers a unique realization of a tripartite interface between light, a single proxy qubit (electron spin), and an isolated spin ensemble (nuclei).
The ability to control these constituents and their mutual interactions create opportunities to realize an optically controllable ensemble of ~50,000 spins. In this talk, I will present the decade-long journey from treating the quantum dot nuclei as noise to the observation of their collective magnon modes and eventually to their tuneable quantum correlations, all witnessed via a single electron spin driven by light.