Solid Light: Frontiers and applications of solid-state Cavity Quantum Electro-Dynamics. Our understanding of quantum mechanics directly fuels new technology. We are on the verge of a new revolution in technology, where the aspects of quantum physics that we haven't been able to understand are now within technological reach. Our concept of solid-light joins two of the most important branches of physics, and in so doing develops a new technology of diamond-based quantum processors that will be b ....Solid Light: Frontiers and applications of solid-state Cavity Quantum Electro-Dynamics. Our understanding of quantum mechanics directly fuels new technology. We are on the verge of a new revolution in technology, where the aspects of quantum physics that we haven't been able to understand are now within technological reach. Our concept of solid-light joins two of the most important branches of physics, and in so doing develops a new technology of diamond-based quantum processors that will be built in Australia. This will benefit the Australian scientific community by providing devices to solve important quantum problems, and benefit the wider community by growing a new industry based around diamond quantum nanoscience.Read moreRead less
Controlling spin coherence with rotation. This project aims to harness the ability to control the fundamental interactions which limit the precision of a diamond quantum sensor, enabling more sensitive magnetometry. Quantum sensors are unveiling new insights into nano-scale phenomena. Single atom defects in diamonds have been at the forefront of this revolution in nano-scale sensor technology. A unique capability, spinning diamond quantum sensors at up to 500,000 rpm, fast enough that quantum pr ....Controlling spin coherence with rotation. This project aims to harness the ability to control the fundamental interactions which limit the precision of a diamond quantum sensor, enabling more sensitive magnetometry. Quantum sensors are unveiling new insights into nano-scale phenomena. Single atom defects in diamonds have been at the forefront of this revolution in nano-scale sensor technology. A unique capability, spinning diamond quantum sensors at up to 500,000 rpm, fast enough that quantum properties of the defects are preserved during a cycle has been established. This project will address the long-standing problem of nano-scale solid-materials characterisation using rotationally-enhanced quantum magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Read moreRead less
If a spin could torque: quantum force sensing with levitated nanodiamonds. This project aims to detect the tiny twisting forces imparted by a single quantum spin on a host diamond nanocrystal levitating in vacuum. Our team will build both a hypersensitive detector of quantum rotations and the complex theoretical models for quantum spin systems coupled to the mechanical motion of nanometre-sized diamonds. The expected experimental capabilities and knowledge generated by this project will enable w ....If a spin could torque: quantum force sensing with levitated nanodiamonds. This project aims to detect the tiny twisting forces imparted by a single quantum spin on a host diamond nanocrystal levitating in vacuum. Our team will build both a hypersensitive detector of quantum rotations and the complex theoretical models for quantum spin systems coupled to the mechanical motion of nanometre-sized diamonds. The expected experimental capabilities and knowledge generated by this project will enable world-first measurements of quantum effects with unparalleled sensitivity and powerful new quantum sensing paradigms. The project should enable significant benefits, such as incisive tests of the limits of quantum theory and new Australian technology operating at the interface of the quantum and classical worlds.Read moreRead less
Imaging Light and Gases with Low Energy Electrons. The imaging of light and atoms trapped in the potential minima of optical lattices will be a world first, positioning Australia at the forefront of the merging fields of electron microscopy and atom optics, leading to important international recognition and publicity. This project, relevant to the frontier technologies of photonics, atom optics and quantum information processing, will also develop a skills base in surface electron microscopy and ....Imaging Light and Gases with Low Energy Electrons. The imaging of light and atoms trapped in the potential minima of optical lattices will be a world first, positioning Australia at the forefront of the merging fields of electron microscopy and atom optics, leading to important international recognition and publicity. This project, relevant to the frontier technologies of photonics, atom optics and quantum information processing, will also develop a skills base in surface electron microscopy and laser science by providing high level training for post-graduate and honours students. In addition, the utilisation of optical lattices as micro-environmental cells in electron microscopy will be an important development for in situ studies of the gas phase including chemical reactions.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100647
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$385,155.00
Summary
Spin-Orbit coupling in a Lithium-6 quasi-2D Fermi gas. Spin-orbit interactions couple a particle's spin to its momentum and underlie remarkable phenomena including topological edge states in insulators and the fractional quantum Hall effect. In conventional solid-state systems these effects are difficult to study due to the complex and imperfect structure of the host material. This project will generate spin-orbit coupling in the defect free and highly controllable environment of an ultracold qu ....Spin-Orbit coupling in a Lithium-6 quasi-2D Fermi gas. Spin-orbit interactions couple a particle's spin to its momentum and underlie remarkable phenomena including topological edge states in insulators and the fractional quantum Hall effect. In conventional solid-state systems these effects are difficult to study due to the complex and imperfect structure of the host material. This project will generate spin-orbit coupling in the defect free and highly controllable environment of an ultracold quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas to observe new topological phases and Majorana fermions which hold promise for realising decoherence free protected quantum states. Read moreRead less
Mesoscopic quantum reality in the light of new technologies. Evidence for the Schrodinger cat that defies macroscopic reality has emerged for systems of several atoms, ions or photons, resulting in a Nobel award in physics in 2012. However, developments in quantum science technology make these states experimentally accessible at an increasingly mesoscopic level. This project will develop a theory to test mesoscopic realism, nonlocality and decoherence in experiment, focusing on cold atom and ion ....Mesoscopic quantum reality in the light of new technologies. Evidence for the Schrodinger cat that defies macroscopic reality has emerged for systems of several atoms, ions or photons, resulting in a Nobel award in physics in 2012. However, developments in quantum science technology make these states experimentally accessible at an increasingly mesoscopic level. This project will develop a theory to test mesoscopic realism, nonlocality and decoherence in experiment, focusing on cold atom and ion trap systems. This project will study multipartite nonlocality based on Bell's theorem, the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and Schrodinger's quantum steering. As well as having fundamental significance, these demonstrations are potentially useful for metrology, secure quantum cryptography and ultra-sensitive detectors.Read moreRead less
Building time crystals with ultracold atoms. This project aims to create a new exotic form of quantum matter in which a many-body system of ultracold atoms bouncing on a vibrating mirror spontaneously self-organises its motion with a period tens of times longer than the driving period of the mirror. Such ‘time crystals’ are predicted to be robust against external perturbations and to persist for very long times. The project expects to generate new knowledge on exotic non-equilibrium crystalline ....Building time crystals with ultracold atoms. This project aims to create a new exotic form of quantum matter in which a many-body system of ultracold atoms bouncing on a vibrating mirror spontaneously self-organises its motion with a period tens of times longer than the driving period of the mirror. Such ‘time crystals’ are predicted to be robust against external perturbations and to persist for very long times. The project expects to generate new knowledge on exotic non-equilibrium crystalline phenomena in the time domain, such as many-body localisation with temporal disorder, which has counter-intuitive characteristics such as absence of thermalisation and vanishing direct current transport. Time crystals could provide significant benefits for the storage and transfer of quantum information, and this, and other outcomes may ultimately lead to commercial products.Read moreRead less
Transport and impurity dynamics in a unitary Fermi gas. This project aims to generate new understandings of transport and the behaviour of impurities in a gas of strongly-interacting atoms cooled to nanoKelvin temperatures. By measuring the response of a unitary Fermi gas to disturbances with well-defined momenta and energies, we will map the elementary excitations in both the superfluid and normal fluid phases. From this, the parameters that define how particles and impurities travel through th ....Transport and impurity dynamics in a unitary Fermi gas. This project aims to generate new understandings of transport and the behaviour of impurities in a gas of strongly-interacting atoms cooled to nanoKelvin temperatures. By measuring the response of a unitary Fermi gas to disturbances with well-defined momenta and energies, we will map the elementary excitations in both the superfluid and normal fluid phases. From this, the parameters that define how particles and impurities travel through the system can be determined. Our study will reveal whether the unitary Fermi gas approaches a conjectured quantum limit for perfect fluidity, examine how the properties of the gas depend on impurity concentration and establish new benchmarks for theories of strongly-correlated quantum matter.Read moreRead less
Crossing quantum-classical boundaries in a single particle. This project is aimed at constructing and observing an individual quantum system that can exhibit chaotic behaviour under controllable conditions. It is a long-sought goal of modern physics that can become reality for the first time in the world, thanks to the unique availability in Australia of the most quantum-coherent single spin ever made and a long history of theoretical advances in the field. Turning a spin into a chaotic system w ....Crossing quantum-classical boundaries in a single particle. This project is aimed at constructing and observing an individual quantum system that can exhibit chaotic behaviour under controllable conditions. It is a long-sought goal of modern physics that can become reality for the first time in the world, thanks to the unique availability in Australia of the most quantum-coherent single spin ever made and a long history of theoretical advances in the field. Turning a spin into a chaotic system will uncover the true nature of the quantum-classical boundary, and verify whether an underlying classical chaotic dynamics ultimately influences the behaviour of quantum systems. It is expected that the discoveries made will illuminate the path towards the technological exploitation of increasingly complex quantum devices.Read moreRead less
Finding the lost particle: Majorana fermions in ultracold atoms. Majorana fermions – particles that are their own antiparticles – play a key role in future quantum technologies such as fault-tolerant quantum computers. Being considered only as a mathematical possibility over the past 75 years, they might be surprisingly materialised owing to recent rapid experimental advances. In collaboration with the world-leading cold-atom laboratories in Australia, China and the USA, this project aims to pav ....Finding the lost particle: Majorana fermions in ultracold atoms. Majorana fermions – particles that are their own antiparticles – play a key role in future quantum technologies such as fault-tolerant quantum computers. Being considered only as a mathematical possibility over the past 75 years, they might be surprisingly materialised owing to recent rapid experimental advances. In collaboration with the world-leading cold-atom laboratories in Australia, China and the USA, this project aims to pave a new direction to create and manipulate Majorana fermions towards realistic atomtronics devices, by using the highly controllable setting of ultracold atomic Fermi gases. This research complements the search of Majorana fermions in solid-state devices.Read moreRead less