Research Areas - (265) Quantum Sensing

Full path: Physics > Quantum Sensing

Department(s)/lab(s): Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering | Frequency Combs & Quantum Metrology Group @ CUBoulder
Summary:

Diddams' group develops optical frequency combs (fiber, microresonator, and mid-IR) and applies them to quantum metrology, optical clocks, precision spectroscopy from UV to THz, low-noise microwave photonics, and astronomical spectrograph calibration; he directs CU's Quantum Engineering Initiative. For context, this complements the established paradigm of NV-diamond ensemble magnetometry (Hahn-echo/DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/√Hz sensitivity.

Department(s)/lab(s): Applied Physics | Digonnet Group (Ginzton Laboratory) @ Stanford
Summary:

Digonnet's group develops high-sensitivity fiber-optic sensors, especially resonant and interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes engineered to approach fundamental (shot-noise/quantum) rotation-sensing limits, alongside specialty fiber lasers and amplifiers.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Quantum Theory Group @ USyd
Summary:

Doherty is a theorist whose early work established much of the modern framework for continuous quantum measurement and quantum feedback control, and who now works across quantum information theory, error correction and the characterisation of quantum devices. For a sensing candidate the relevant body of work is the measurement/feedback theory: conditional evolution under continuous observation, the role of back-action, and the design of feedback protocols that stabilise a quantum system while extracting information from it. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β€” DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β€” the continuous-measurement formalism he helped build is what one uses to ask whether a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble measurement is saturating its quantum Fisher information bound or merely its shot-noise bound. Borderline inclusion β€” the current group output is largely quantum computing theory rather than sensing β€” but retained under the inclusive rubric given the measurement-theory pedigree.

Department(s)/lab(s): Department of Physics, 1st Institute of Physics | Dressel Group - Correlated Matter Spectroscopy (1. Physikalisches Institut) @ Stuttgart
Summary:

Dressel's institute specializes in broadband electrodynamic spectroscopy -- microwave through THz to optical -- of low-dimensional and strongly correlated electron systems: organic conductors, quantum spin liquids, superconductors, and quantum magnets, complemented by ESR/EPR and low-temperature transport. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), a borderline inclusion, kept because the group's core competence is high-sensitivity resonant detection of weak electrodynamic responses (and it houses ESR capability), which is adjacent to spin-ensemble sensing even though the scientific target is the material rather than the sensor.

Department(s)/lab(s): Department of Chemistry, Institute of Nuclear Chemistry | AK Duellmann - Nuclear Chemistry (TRIGA) @ JGU
Summary:

Duellmann heads nuclear chemistry at JGU (TRIGA reactor site) with joint appointments at GSI and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz, working on the production, chemical separation and characterization of the heaviest elements. For this search the relevant thread is 229Th: his group supplies and prepares the isomeric thorium samples and molecular thorium ions that Wendt's laser spectroscopy and Schmidt-Kaler's ion traps interrogate en route to a nuclear clock, and he is part of the broader radioactive-molecule programme aimed at symmetry-violation searches. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), the pivot is toward the next frontier of frequency metrology, where the 'sensor' is a nucleus rather than an electron shell -- an unusually good chemistry/physics interface for a postdoc.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications | Dzurak Silicon Quantum Devices Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Dzurak leads the silicon CMOS quantum dot spin qubit programme at UNSW and co-founded Diraq, the company commercialising it. The group demonstrated the first silicon MOS qubit, two-qubit logic in silicon, and has pushed toward fidelities above the fault-tolerance threshold in industrially-manufactured CMOS devices, including work on gate-stack engineering for low charge noise and on single-electron-transistor charge sensing for readout. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β€” DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β€” the relevant transferable asset is the readout: the single-electron-transistor and gate-based dispersive sensors this group builds are among the most sensitive electrometers in existence, the charge-domain analogue of pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry. Caveat against the stated preference: the programme is now heavily fabrication- and yield-driven and closely tied to a commercial roadmap, so a sensing-focused postdoc would be somewhat off the group's main axis.

Department(s)/lab(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Quantum Photonics Laboratory (Englund Lab) @ MIT
Summary:

PREFERRED. Englund's Quantum Photonics Laboratory builds solid-state quantum technologies spanning diamond NV-center ensembles, integrated photonic circuits, and single-photon detectors, including a CMOS-integrated NV-ensemble quantum sensor for vector magnetometry and 4-pi steradian field sensing, and cavity-QED schemes for nuclear-spin readout aimed at nanoscale/inertial sensing. This continues the trajectory of NV ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, chip-scale NMR, T1 relaxometry) toward pT/sqrt(Hz)-class, chip-integrated magnetometers, alongside quantum networking and photonic quantum computing work.

Department(s)/lab(s): PME | Esser-Kahn Lab @ UChicago
Summary:

Primary focus: immune engineering for vaccines and cancer immunotherapy. Quantum sensing relevance: co-authored 2025 fluorescent-protein spin qubit paper (Physics World Top-10) with Maurer and Awschalom, contributing protein engineering expertise to develop biological alternatives to NV centers. Collaborates on quantum biosensors for real-time monitoring of immune cell activity (Chan Zuckerberg Biohub). Primarily a collaboration gateway for NV biosensing rather than standalone quantum sensing PI.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | MIT LIGO Laboratory @ MIT
Summary:

PREFERRED. Evans leads work on frequency-dependent squeezed-light injection and low-thermal-noise optics that has pushed Advanced LIGO below the standard quantum limit across its full detection band, and he leads the US design effort for the next-generation Cosmic Explorer gravitational-wave observatory. This is squarely quantum-enhanced sensing at a fundamental-physics facility scale rather than a device-fabrication program.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Institute for Quantum Electronics | Quantum Optoelectronics Group (Faist Group) @ ETH Zurich
Summary:

Faist is the inventor of the quantum cascade laser (QCL, 1994 at Bell Labs) and leads the Quantum Optoelectronics Group at ETH. Research directions: (1) QCL frequency combs β€” ring QCLs demonstrate dissipative Kerr solitons in the THz (Science Advances 2023), key for broadband integrated mid-IR spectrometers; (2) Dual-comb spectroscopy β€” two co-integrated ring QCLs for ultrafast molecular fingerprinting; (3) Quantum cascade detectors β€” strain-compensated InGaAs/InAlAs QCDs for short-wave mid-IR (<4 Β΅m) sensing; (4) THz strong-coupling β€” ultrastrongly coupled 2DEG in cavities for quantum photonics; (5) Astrophysical heterodyne receivers β€” double-metal QCL Josephson mixers. Spin-off: IRsweep (mid-IR dual-comb systems) and Alpes Lasers (QCL commercialisation). FIRST Center head at ETH.