Spin-NANO has achieved significant progress towards its scientific objectives and also in providing training in research and complementary skills to the cohort of 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs).
Our scientific programme was divided in four work-packages encompassing research and development effort in: WP1, electrically controlled qubits; WP2, qubits with a photon interface; WP3, exploration of new nano-scale materials potentially suitable for quantum technologies; WP4, experimental hardware for materials with photonic interface.
In WP1, very significant progress has been achieved in the use of silicon-germanium nanostructures (called ‘quantum dots’), where we demonstrated a programmable two-qubit quantum processor in silicon and used it to perform search algorithms.
In WP2, a complementary approach using photons to achieve and detect quantum entanglement between the spin states in the nano-scale impurities in diamond separated by the record 2 meters was applied.
In WP3 significant developments have been achieved in understanding and control of electronic and optical properties of atomically thin semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Large effort has been directed to studies of so-called van der Waals heterostructures, artificial structures combining more than one atomically thin material stacked on top of one another and held together by van der Waals interactions. This approach has enabled new high quality structures to be realised and studied using both optical spectroscopy and electron transport methods following a breakthrough in fabrication. We showed that the optical and electronic properties of TMDs improve dramatically when the atomic layer is ‘encapsulated’ in thin high quality hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanolayer sheets. This approach is now used as a ‘golden standard’ in this very large field of research. We applied this approach to realise: an ‘atomically thin mirror’ made from a highly reflective monolayer of a TMD MoSe2; one of the first electronic quantum devices using TMDs interfaced with graphene, opening the way to development of qubits based on atomically thin materials. As part of this effort we also developed a new method for optical imaging of the coupling between the two TMD monolayers. Finally, we discovered in experiment that TMDs can be used to deterministically create single photon emitters (key for quantum networks) by straining the monolayers placed on patterned surfaces, for which we have additionally developed theoretical understanding.
In WP4, we addressed an important issue in the photon-based entanglement experiments, namely the efficiency with which the photons can be extracted from the impurities in diamond. To this end we developed a special optical microcavity incorporating diamond membranes, worked to provide a practical technical solution to highly stable optical microcavities, and investigated how the quality of the dielectric mirrors in such microcavities can be improved.
In addition to excellent research training, ESRs received training in complementary skills through network-wide training provided by Think Ahead (led by Sandrine Soubes, Spin-NANO’s Researcher Development Manager). The first workshop that took place (Delft June 2017) was dedicated to the topic of “Becoming excellent and impactful communicators”, the second workshop (Sheffield Jan 2018) addressed the topic of “Collaborations across borders” and addressed collaboration, outreach and public engagement. The final workshop (Cambridge Jan 2019) - "Researchers of the future" - considered creativity, innovation, enterprise, industry, entrepreneurship and globalisation. In between the workshops ESRs were given tasks to follow on the training. In particular, they created YouTube videos explaining their research to non-specialists - 8 videos on the Spin-NANO Youtube channel have over 7000 views. ESRs also successfully developed a Spin-NANO blog, covering the scientific topics explained at the non-specialist level:
https://spinnanoblog.wordpress.com/(opens in new window).
During the project the network organised 7 meetings - Kick-off meeting Munich Jan 2016 (including Gender Training workshop), Summer School on Quantum information in condensed matter physics (Copenhagen Jul 2016), two Project meetings with industry (Delft Jun 2017 and Cambridge Jan 2019), Mid Term Review Meeting (Sheffield Jan 2018), Spin-based Quantum Information Processing Conference (Konstanz Sep 2018) and a Meeting on Nano physics (Toulouse Mar 2019).
