Tim Taminiau (QuTech team leader, Assoc Prof) develops NV-center quantum registers for sensing and quantum networks. Research: (1) NV-center nuclear spin registers — quantum control of up to 50 coupled 13C nuclear spins; (2) nanoscale NMR sensing — mapping external spin networks with sub-nm resolution; (3) silicon-carbide spin qubits — VSi centres for scalable quantum networks with fast entanglement rates; (4) quantum error correction in multi-spin diamond registers. NWO Vici Grant 2026. Quadrupolar nuclear spin spectroscopy of individual nuclei (Nano Letters 2024). Key for sensing proteins at nanoscale.
Vuckovic's lab uses inverse-designed nanophotonic cavities and waveguides to couple diamond (NV/SiV) and other solid-state spin defects to light, building integrated quantum photonic devices for quantum sensing, networking, and single-photon sources.
Ying Wang (assistant professor in Quantum Optoelectronic Devices group) researches GaAs-based integrated photonics for quantum applications: electro-optical quantum dot devices, GaAs-on-insulator waveguide integration, and chip-scale quantum photonics for sensing and QKD.
Wickham builds DNA origami nanostructures — programmable, self-assembling scaffolds with nanometre-precision addressability — and uses them as molecular machines, drug-delivery vehicles and, most relevantly, as rulers and probes for single-molecule measurement. DNA origami is the standard platform for DNA-PAINT super-resolution and for positioning fluorophores, nanoparticles or spin labels at defined separations, and her group works on dynamic, reconfigurable devices that respond to biological triggers. 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 — DNA origami is the leading candidate technology for positioning target molecules at a controlled standoff from a near-surface NV ensemble, which is the central geometric problem in pushing NV nanoscale NMR and DEER from pT/sqrt(Hz) ensembles down to single-molecule sensitivity. Genuinely complementary skill set for a quantum-sensing candidate.
Xu leads the Experimental Quantum Engineering group with a joint ETH–PSI appointment. Research directions: (1) Superconducting circuit quantum sensing — using qubits-as-sensors for detecting weak microwave signals beyond standard quantum limits, quantum non-demolition readout of photon fields; (2) Quantum error correction enabled sensing — integrating bosonic codes (cat qubits, binomial codes) into sensing protocols; (3) Quantum acoustics — coupling superconducting qubits to surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators for hybrid quantum sensing; (4) Novel quantum hardware at PSI — leveraging PSI's infrastructure for cryogenic device fabrication and testing. Connected to the ETH–PSI Quantum Computing Hub.
Andrew Young's group develops solid-state quantum photonic systems, focusing on deterministic single photon emitters and spin-photon interfaces. Research: (1) quantum dot and colour-centre emitters coupled to cavities and waveguides for near-unity efficiency; (2) spin-photon interfaces for quantum repeaters; (3) cavity quantum electrodynamics for quantum networking. Part of Quantum Communications Hub.
Studies computational classical and quantum electrodynamics, quantum optics, topological photonics, and integrated photonics, including radiative cooling and visual perception applications.
Iman Esmaeil Zadeh develops superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) and reconfigurable nano-photonic circuits. Research: (1) integrated SNSPDs with on-chip photonic waveguides and circuits for quantum optics experiments; (2) high-efficiency, low-timing-jitter SNSPDs for quantum communication and quantum sensing; (3) reconfigurable nano-photonic quantum circuits. Key enabler for quantum photonic sensing and quantum network experiments.