Speaker: Victoria A. Norman, UC Davis Physics

Title: Building a quantum nanophotonics lab: instrumentation, initial measurements, and numerical simulations

Abstract: In this high-level, informal exit seminar, I will discuss some of the major projects I worked on during my graduate career.

These projects include: building optical experiments in R-Lab and innovations in bridging commercially available cryogenic technologies, measurements on the NV center in silicon carbide for future quantum information applications, and numerical simulations of cavity QED phenomena.

The NV center in silicon carbide is well-positioned for quantum networking applications because of its convenient emission into telecom compatible wavelengths and foundry compatible substrate for scalability. We built the first Integrated Cryogenic system for Emission, Collection And Photon-detection (ICECAP) a 3-in-1 system that cools both samples and detectors, collects light from quantum emitter samples, and detects single photons. We measure optical properties nitrogen vacancy in 4H-SiC at previously unreached temperatures and report both wavelength and time-resolved results.

Cavity QED forms the basis of many quantum simulation proposals, to that end we take extensions to the typical model of a single atom in a single resonator cavity and scale to experimentally realizable systems of many atoms and many coupled cavities. Results from collaborations with current state-of-the-art quantum processing units will be briefly discussed.