Herkommer holds the chair for Design and Simulation of Optical Systems at Stuttgart's Institute of Applied Optics (ITO), the group behind much of the optical-design side of two-photon-3D-printed micro-optics -- printing complete multi-lens objectives on the tip of a single-mode fibre, which enables ultrathin endoscopic imaging and micro-objectives that cannot be made by conventional polishing. Related work covers freeform and metasurface optics, aberration theory, and adaptive/computational imaging. Long-running collaboration with Giessen (existing PI) at the 4th Institute of Physics. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), a borderline inclusion on the microscopy axis: the group does not do sensing itself, but it makes the optics that get a diffraction-limited spot into places you otherwise cannot reach -- directly useful for fibre-coupled NV probes and endoscopic quantum sensing.
Unnithan runs a sensor-engineering group spanning plasmonic colour filters and metasurface-based CMOS image and spectral sensors, thermal/hyperspectral cameras, machine learning on sensor data, and — the relevant thread here — the engineering and packaging of quantum diamond magnetometers, in a joint programme with the Melbourne physics groups and Phasor Innovation aimed at navigation, subsurface sensing and eventual healthcare use. He has extensive industry links (Hort-Eye, KDH) and an entrepreneurial orientation. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — his role in that collaboration is on the readout, optics and integration side rather than the spin physics, i.e. turning a laboratory pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble into a fielded instrument. Caveat against the stated preference: this group is substantially device-fabrication and product-oriented rather than sensitivity-limited fundamental measurement.
Roberts leads Melbourne's optics group and is a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS). The work is about extracting information that conventional intensity imaging discards: metasurface-encoded point spread functions that recover the full polarisation state or quantitative phase in a single shot, subwavelength structures for edge enhancement and optical computing, and vectorial beam shaping. For a quantum-sensing candidate the relevant hook is that meta-optics is becoming the standard way to miniaturise the optical front end of NV, atomic-vapour and single-molecule sensors, and to add orientational sensitivity to imaging. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — her metasurface collection optics and polarisation-resolved detection schemes are being applied to improve photon collection efficiency and orientational discrimination in exactly the NV-ensemble geometries used for pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry. Preferred attribute present: orientation-resolved methods that push past standard resolution limits.