Lauret studies quantum light from low-dimensional materials - room-temperature single-photon emission from carbon nanotubes and defects in hexagonal boron nitride, coupled to photonic/plasmonic structures - a fundamental-photon and quantum-emitter platform. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work provides solid-state single-photon sources adjacent to spin-defect sensing.

Ledoux-Rak works on molecular and polymer nonlinear optics - second-harmonic generation, electro-optic modulators, and photonic materials/devices - a fundamental-light and nonlinear-photonics program (legacy LPQM at ENS Cachan). In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work connects via nonlinear-optical materials for photon-pair generation and modulation.

Leon-Saval co-invented the photonic lantern and is the fibre-device engineer of the SAIL programme. His group designs, draws and characterises multicore fibres, mode-selective lanterns, OH-suppression fibre Bragg gratings and hexabundles, and increasingly applies the same devices outside astronomy — in telecommunications space-division multiplexing and in medical endoscopy and imaging through fibre. The unifying technical problem is coupling a spatially-incoherent, aberrated beam into single-mode circuitry without losing photons. 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 — photonic lanterns are directly applicable to quantum sensing readout: the same device that feeds a seeing-limited telescope beam into a single-mode spectrograph can feed fluorescence from a scattering biological sample into a single-mode quantum-limited detector, preserving the photon budget that a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV measurement depends on.

Liu's group sits at the junction of DNA nanotechnology and nanophotonics: DNA-origami-templated plasmonic assemblies, reconfigurable artificial nanomachines whose motion is read out optically (chiral plasmonics, FRET), and, increasingly, synthetic-cell systems -- DNA-based pores and a programmable DNA-origami nanosyringe for directed membrane translocation, the latter published jointly with Nussberger's biophysics group at Stuttgart. The through-line is building nanoscale machines that both actuate and report. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), the relevance is on the biosensing axis: this is the group that can put a nanoscale probe exactly where you want it on or through a membrane, which is the delivery problem that in-cell quantum sensing keeps running into. Preferred-attribute note: nanofabrication is heavily used, but the emphasis is on single-molecule optical readout rather than device manufacture per se.

Malaney works on quantum communications with an emphasis on the satellite channel: continuous- and discrete-variable QKD through atmospheric turbulence, entanglement distribution from space, and the use of Gaussian and squeezed states as the carriers. A distinct thread is quantum-enhanced sensing and localisation — quantum illumination and quantum radar — where entangled probe states are used to detect weakly-reflecting targets in noisy backgrounds. 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 work belongs to the nonclassical-light arm of the search: it addresses whether squeezing and entanglement can be preserved through a lossy channel well enough to deliver a real metrological advantage, which is the practical question that determines whether quantum-enhanced sensing can ever beat a well-engineered shot-noise-limited pT/sqrt(Hz) device. Largely theory/simulation with some experimental collaboration.

Marandi's group develops ultrafast and nonlinear nanophotonics - on-chip optical parametric oscillators/amplifiers, mid-infrared frequency combs, squeezed-light sources, and photonic computing - to enable quantum-enhanced and mid-IR molecular sensing and low-noise measurement in integrated platforms. For context, this complements the established paradigm of NV-diamond ensemble magnetometry (Hahn-echo/DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/√Hz sensitivity.

Merklein is the independent PI within the Eggleton group most focused on the acoustic side of Brillouin physics: he demonstrated on-chip photon-phonon memory (coherently transferring an optical pulse into a long-lived acoustic excitation and back), and works on distributed Brillouin sensing in optical fibre and on the coherent control of travelling acoustic waves in waveguides. The distributed-sensing thread is a practical, sensitivity-limited measurement problem: recovering strain and temperature along kilometres of fibre from a very weak backscattered signal. 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 — phonon-mediated storage and readout is a complementary transduction channel to spin-based sensing, and the group is now pushing toward the quantum regime where the acoustic mode must be treated as a quantum object rather than a classical one. Early-career PI (DECRA) with genuine independence inside a large group.

Michler's IHFG grows and studies semiconductor quantum dots as on-demand single- and entangled-photon sources, including telecom-band emitters, on-chip Hanbury-Brown-Twiss/photonic integration, and atom-QD hybrid interfaces - core fundamental-light and quantum-photonic-sensing resources. Cleanroom epitaxy on site. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work supplies nonclassical light sources that can enhance optical sensing.

Leonardo Midolo develops III-V optoelectronic quantum devices at NBI. Research: (1) nanomechanical quantum photonic integrated circuits (NOEMS) — GaAs waveguide phase shifters, routers, and switches for single-photon routing; (2) heterogeneous integration of quantum dot emitters on silicon and SiN platforms; (3) quantum key distribution with deterministic single-photon sources over field-installed dark fibre. Group established 2022; Beamfox spinout for proximity correction.

Prof. Mohseni's group (Bio-inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics) pushes III-V semiconductor photodetector technology toward thermodynamic and quantum limits of photon sensitivity. Key directions: (1) Nanoscale IR photodetectors: shrinking pixel dimensions below the diffraction limit using quantum confinement effects (InGaAs/InAlAs quantum well and dot structures) to improve sensitivity, bandwidth, and resolution simultaneously; (2) Superlattice photomultipliers — high-gain, low-noise avalanche photodetectors at room temperature approaching quantum-limited sensitivity for mid-wave and long-wave infrared detection; (3) Quantum sensing applications including squeezed-light-enhanced thermoreflectance imaging of electronic hotspots, and photon-counting receivers for quantum communications. Co-author on 275+ papers, 33+ US patents; NAI Fellow 2023; W.M. Keck Foundation Award, DARPA YFA, NSF CAREER. Fellow of SPIE and Optica. Also Professor of Physics and Astronomy.