Quantum Information Science from the Perspective of a Device and Materials Engineer

Subhransu Bandyopadhyay

Quantum information science is presented in a fashion that may be useful to a device or materials engineer. Spintronic implementations are emphasized.

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Adam Alfieri, Surendra B. Anantharaman, Huiqin Zhang +1 more

Quantum information science and engineering (QISE)-which entails the use of quantum mechanical states for information processing, communications, and sensing-and the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology have dominated condensed matter physics and materials science research in the 21st century. Solid-state devices for QISE have, to this point, predominantly been designed with bulk materials as their constituents. This review considers how nanomaterials (i.e., materials with intrinsic quantum confinement) may offer inherent advantages over conventional materials for QISE. The materials challenges for specific types of qubits, along with how emerging nanomaterials may overcome these challenges, are identified. Challenges for and progress toward nanomaterials-based quantum devices are condidered. The overall aim of the review is to help close the gap between the nanotechnology and quantum information communities and inspire research that will lead to next-generation quantum devices for scalable and practical quantum applications.

Diogo O. Soares-Pinto

Clinton A. Boye

Matthew Yeh

The electro-optic effect, in which an applied electric field changes a material’s refractive index, provides a direct bridge between electronic and optical signals. Spurred by recent advances in nanofabrication, integrated electro-optics has had great success revolutionizing commercial markets for telecommunications and is expected to play a critical role in emerging applications such as quantum networks and photonic quantum computing. In this dissertation, I present two perspectives on leveraging the strong electro-optic coupling in a characteristic material platform, thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). In Chapter 1, I provide a philosophical overview of the structure-property-performance relationships that govern materials science, and what it means for engineering to be "materials-motivated". In Chapter 2, I summarize the background theory of electro-optics required for the studies in this dissertation. In Chapters 3 and 4, I will describe the development of cavity-based electro-optic devices inspired by atomic and solid-state physics and their application to efficient spectral manipulation of light for quantum optics experiments such as two-photon interference. In Chapters 5 and 6, I will discuss materials challenges facing the stable dc biasing of such electro-optic devices, and progress toward sensing characteristic sources of drift and instability at material interfaces. By simply changing perspectives to a defect-oriented interpretation more characteristic of well-established semiconductor engineering, we can gain fundamental insights and new approaches into the microscopic origins and possible mitigation techniques for these nonidealities.