3:00–4:00 pm
Aziza Suleymanzade’s PhD Thesis Defense
Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 3:00 pm CDT
Millimeter-wave photons for hybrid quantum systems
The recent advancements in quantum computing resulted in the development of a wide range of different quantum hardware platforms, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions, Rydberg atom arrays, and photonics chips. These amazing platforms have unique advantages and shortcomings, so the future of quantum technology may be hybrid. Hybrid quantum systems could leverage individual strengths of the constituent platforms for the implementation of novel functionalities or compensation of individual weaknesses. As advantageous as they are theoretically, hybrid systems are extremely challenging to build.
In this talk, I will report on the development of a new hybrid quantum system for interfacing single optical and millimeter-wave photons using Rydberg atoms as mediators. At the heart of our system is a cloud of laser-cooled Rb85 atoms loaded into a crossed 3D superconducting mm-wave cavity with an optical Fabry-Perot Cavity. Through Rydberg excitations of our atomic cloud, we hope to generate interactions between light particles, entangle optical and mm-wave photons and transduce quantum information from single optical to mm-wave photons. Moreover, the strong interactions between mm-wave photons and atoms in our systems could open up new opportunities for many-atom entanglement and generation of spin squeezed states useful for quantum-enhanced metrology. I will describe the development of our system from its humble beginnings and finish with the exciting recent results.
Committee members
Jonathan Simon (Chair)
David Schuster
Young-Kee Kim
David Awschalom
Michael Levin
Aziza will be starting a postdoc at Harvard in Lukin Lab.