News
First QNN High School Interns Hosted through NSF program
The QNN group hosted our first summer High School interns this year due to a grant from the National Science Foundation. By expanding the number of high schoolers with direct experience with ongoing research programs, the NSF hopes to increase the potential pool of future scientists. After working with the local Somerville and Medford High Schools, two students were accepted based on their applications to this paid month-long program.
Marjia Masrura Zasra and Caleb Chang of Medford High School worked with graduate student John Simonaitis and Group leader Dr. Donnie Keathley to create methods and models of observing the levels of liquid nitrogen remaining in the canisters. On the final day of the internship they jointly presented their findings on sound-based liquid sensing. They concluded on a best preliminary design and what the next steps could be. We’re proud of these interns for rising to the challenge of designing and implementing these experiments and fielding questions regarding their work!
High School Interns Marjia and Caleb with their data, John, Donnie, and Joseph Alongi after their presentation to the QNN group
This program will be offered again in Summer 2024 and information on the program timeline and applications will be distributed through Somerville and Medford High School.
This paid internship was supported by National Science Foundation grant “NSF Quantum Coherent Interactions” under contract No. 2110535
Matthew Yeung awarded the Mathworks Fellowship
Matthew Yeung is a PhD candidate whose research explores interactions between light and nanostructures for both fundamental research and the development of novel optoelectronic technologies. The focus of his current work, which will be supported by this MathWorks Fellowship, is the development of nanostructured devices that can interact with and measure light fields with sub-femtosecond resolution. These devices enable a critical new tool in visible to near-infrared optical metrology: a sampling oscilloscope for light waves, which could offer a fresh time-domain perspective on how light interacts with materials. Matthew’s work has large number of potential applications, including the creation of more efficient solar cells, understanding the fundamental energy transfer mechanisms that enable photosynthesis, and characterizing materials with unprecedented sensitivity. MATLAB has been vital in Matthew’s device design, experiment development, and instrumentation interfacing, and he looks forward to sharing the resulting tools with the MathWorks community. His work has the potential to help usher in revolutionary advances in light-based technologies.
New Publication: “Twin experiments reveal twin electron dynamics”
Dr. Donnie Keathley and John Simonaitis reviewed a double-submission of papers on using coulombic effects for electron heralding for Nature Physics, and were invited to write a News and Views article for the general public. The complete article can be found here.
Abstract:
Two studies of electrons generated from laser-triggered emitters have found highly predictable electron–electron energy correlations. These studies, at vastly different energy scales, may lead to heralded electron sources, enabling quantum free-electron optics and low-noise, low-damage electron beam lithography and microscopy.
A schematic of the two experiments, showing the underlying mechanism and detection schemes.
Thesis Defense Recording – Dr. Marco Colengelo: Superconducting Nanowire Technology For Microwave and Photonics Applications
Now-Dr. Marco Colangelo’s thesis defense is now available to view online. The title is “Superconducting Nanowire Technology For Microwave and Photonics Applications.” Congratulations for Dr. Colangelo for his successful PhD defense!
Abstract:
Quantum computing and quantum communication are innovative technologies that promise to revolutionize several aspects of our societal landscape. However, early cutting-edge experiments are rapidly approaching significant scalability roadblocks. As the qubit count increases, superconducting quantum processors require an increasing number of control and readout electronic devices, which are incompatible at scale with the performance of dilution refrigerators. Photonic-based platforms struggle with integration issues due to operational, design, and heterogeneous material compatibility. In this talk, I will demonstrate that superconducting nanowires have the potential to drive a major leap in the scalability of these and other architectures. I will show that the exotic microwave properties of superconducting nanowires enable cryogenic devices at microwave frequencies with an ultra-compact footprint. I will introduce microwave directional couplers and resonators featuring a footprint reduction of up to 200 times, making them suitable for on-chip integration with superconducting quantum processors and any application needing cryogenic microwave signal processing. Furthermore, I will show that engineering the nanowire properties can overcome the metrics trade-offs of single-photon detectors. I will demonstrate an all-in-one nanowire detector with record performances, imaging capabilities, and photon-number resolution capabilities, all in the same design. This device can be used to scale experiments needing many high-performance detectors. Finally, I will demonstrate single-photon detectors integrated on lithium-niobate-on-insulator with state-of-the-art performance. I will also introduce integrated array technology on silicon-on-insulator. This nanowire technology can be heterogeneously integrated with current quantum photonic platforms on-chip, removing the need for outcoupling to fiber-coupled detectors. Superconducting nanowires have the potential to become a comprehensive solution for scaling classical and quantum architectures.
Committee: Prof Karl Berggren (Thesis Supervisor), Prof. Dirk Englund, and Prof. Daniel Santavicca
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afFOGF2CMAA[/embedyt]
Webinar: Nanoscale Petahertz Electronics for Science and Technology
Dr. Donnie Keathley will be presenting at an open webinar on May 5th at 1pm EDT. The topic will be “Nanoscale Petahertz Electronics for Science and Technology.” Details for the webinar are on the registration website and below.
When matter is driven by intense, few-cycle optical field waveforms it is possible to generate free-electrons having sub-cycle, sub-femtosecond temporal structure. By driving such emission between nanoscale structures, it is possible to create compact optical-field-driven electronic devices having bandwidths approaching or even exceeding one petahertz (10^15 hertz).
In this webinar, Phillip Keathley will start by reviewing the fundamental principles behind strong-field electron emission and how it enables sub-femtosecond electron emission. From there, Dr. Keathley will review recent efforts using these properties of strong-field electron emisison for the development of chip-scale petahertz electronics. In particular, Dr. Keathley will review his team’s efforts using nanoplasmonics to enable the use of low-energy driving pulses (picojoule- to nanojoule-level) for applications such as shot-to-shot carrier-envelope-phase detection and optical field sampling with attosecond resolution. Dr. Keathley will conclude by discussing how these nanoscale devices are enabling new capabilities. These new capabilities include field-resolved optical detection as well as the ability to transfer information between devices over femtosecond timescales for petahertz-level memory and logic gates.
Subject Matter Level: Intermediate – Assumes basic knowledge of the topic
What You Will Learn:
• Fundamentals of strong-field electron emission
• How strong-field electron emission enables field-resolved detection and petahertz-electronics
• A review of the state of the art in the field
• Future directions for these technologies
Who Should Attend:
• Those interested in ultrafast optics and applications
• Scientists working in strong-field light-matter interactions
• Those working in nanotechnology interested in how they could be used for ultrafast optics applications
• Those interested in optoelectronics and new directions for ultrafast optical detection