Justin Caram
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Chemistry
Quantum technologies need quantum bits, or qubits, that can hold delicate quantum states long enough to be controlled. Lanthanides, the rare earth elements near the bottom of the periodic table, are attractive candidates.
- Fields
Chemistry
Physics
- Topics
lanthanides
rare earth elements
molecular qubits
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Determine how ligand symmetry, denticity and electronic structure control the linewidths and oscillator strengths of f-to-f transitions in lanthanide complexes, starting with ytterbium compounds.
- Probe the dephasing mechanisms that destroy quantum coherence in lanthanide complexes dissolved in solution, using coherent optical spectroscopy combined with microwave spectroscopy.
- Demonstrate qubit-like manipulation of lanthanide optical transitions in liquid solution, using coherent optical and microwave techniques adapted from quantum information science.
- Test whether design principles learned from ytterbium complexes extend to europium, whose ground state lacks orbital angular momentum, with electronic structure calculations checked against spectroscopic and structural data.
More about the research
Their light-absorbing and light-emitting transitions are unusually narrow and linked to magnetic states. Today they are mostly used inside salt-like crystals at extremely low temperatures. Molecules in solution are thought to be too disturbed by their surroundings to preserve these quantum properties. Preliminary results suggest that careful chemical design of the molecules around a lanthanide ion could overcome this limitation and allow coherent optical control even in liquids.
Why it matters
Today's lanthanide qubits mostly operate inside crystals at extremely low temperatures. Molecular qubits that can be made in large quantities and controlled in liquid solution could provide new building blocks for quantum sensing, quantum communication and information storage. The design rules from this work could help chemists engineer lanthanide light emitters suited to optically addressed quantum devices.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dmitri Babikov
Marquette University, WI·Chemistry
Develop the Quantum Annealer Eigensolver (QAE), an algorithm for D-Wave quantum annealers, to calculate rotational-vibrational spectra of molecules and describe chemical reactivity.
Eszter Boros
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Chemistry·Early-career
Design terbium and europium complexes, guided by density functional theory, that carry built-in Cherenkov-emitting radiolabels, and test whether they can image specific cell-surface receptors in cells.
Shaul Mukamel
University of California-Irvine, CA·Chemistry
Develop models and computational tools to predict and interpret spectroscopy signals made with entangled photons, combining electronic structure and quantum dynamics simulations.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
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