Low-power dynamic manipulation of single nanoscale quantum objects


Date:
August 2, 2021
Source:
Vanderbilt University
Summary:
Electrical engineers are powering the quantum computing revolution
with the development of an on-demand, scalable technique to
manipulate nanoscale nanodiamonds.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Led by Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, Vanderbilt researchers are the first to introduce an approach for trapping
and moving a nanomaterial known as a single colloidal nanodiamond with nitrogen- vacancy center using low power laser beam. The width of a
single human hair is approximately 90,000 nanometers; nanodiamonds are
less than 100 nanometers.

These carbon-based materials are one of the few that can release the
basic unit of all light -- a single photon -- a building block for future quantum photonics applications, Ndukaife explains.


========================================================================== Currently it is possible to trap nanodiamonds using light fields focused
near nano-sized metallic surfaces, but it is not possible to move them
that way because laser beam spots are simply too big. Using an atomic
force microscope, it takes scientists hours to push nanodiamonds into
place one at a time near an emission enhancing environment to form a
useful structure. Further, to create entangled sources and qubits --
key elements that improve the processing speeds of quantum computers --
several nanodiamond emitters are needed close together so that they can interact to make qubits, Ndukaife said.

"We set out to make trapping and manipulating nanodiamonds simpler by
using an interdisciplinary approach," Ndukaife said. "Our tweezer, a low frequency electrothermoplasmonic tweezer (LFET), combines a fraction of a
laser beam with a low-frequency alternating current electric field. This
is an entirely new mechanism to trap and move nanodiamonds." A tedious, hours-long process has been cut down to seconds, and LFET is the first
scalable transport and on- demand assembly technology of its kind.

Ndukaife's work is a key ingredient for quantum computing, a technology
that will soon enable a huge number of applications from high resolution imaging to the creation of unhackable systems and ever smaller devices
and computer chips.

In 2019, the Department of Energy invested $60.7 million in funding to
advance the development of quantum computing and networking.

"Controlling nanodiamonds to make efficient single photon sources that
can be used for these kinds of technologies will shape the future,"
Ndukaife said. "To enhance quantum properties, it is essential to couple quantum emitters such as nanodiamonds with nitrogen-vacancy centers
to nanophotonic structures." Ndukaife intends to further explore
nanodiamonds, arranging them onto nanophotonic structures designed to
enhance their emission performance. With them in place, his lab will
explore the possibilities for ultrabright single photon sources and entanglement in an on-chip platform for information processing and
imaging.

"There are so many things we can use this research to build upon,"
Ndukaife said. "This is the first technique that allows us to dynamically manipulate single nanoscale objects in two dimensions using a low
power laser beam." The research was supported by the National Science Foundation grant ECCS- 1933109.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Vanderbilt_University. Original
written by Marissa Shapiro. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Chuchuan Hong, Sen Yang, Ivan I. Kravchenko, Justus C. Ndukaife.

Electrothermoplasmonic Trapping and Dynamic Manipulation of Single
Colloidal Nanodiamond. Nano Letters, 2021; 21 (12): 4921 DOI:
10.1021/ acs.nanolett.1c00357 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210802140128.htm

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