Boskovic is a synthetic inorganic chemist working on lanthanoid and polyoxometalate molecular magnets, valence tautomeric and redox-switchable complexes, and the design of molecules whose spin states can be addressed and switched. The group's relevance to quantum sensing is that these are chemically tunable spin qubits: unlike solid-state defects, their coordination environment, nuclear-spin bath and anisotropy can be designed atom by atom, which is the argument for molecular qubits as sensors. Characterisation is by SQUID magnetometry, EPR and ab initio calculation. 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 — molecular spin qubits are the chemistry community's answer to the NV centre, and DEER/pulsed-EPR protocols developed for NV ensembles at pT/sqrt(Hz) transfer more or less directly to these systems. Borderline inclusion (synthesis-led rather than sensitivity-led), kept per the inclusive rubric.
Giansiracusa is an early-career PI (ARC DECRA) working on ytterbium and other lanthanoid single-molecule magnets, combining synthesis, magnetometry and ab initio electronic-structure calculation to understand and engineer magnetic anisotropy and spin relaxation. The stated aim of his DECRA is to move Yb-based single-molecule magnets toward real-world application, which in practice means qubit and sensor use cases where long coherence at accessible temperatures matters. 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 — the relaxation-time engineering problem he is attacking is the molecular analogue of the T1/T2 optimisation that sets pT/sqrt(Hz) performance in NV ensembles. Small, new group; a candidate would have unusual latitude but limited infrastructure.
The Han Lab (Chemistry, joined fall 2023) develops quantum sensing tools rooted in electron and nuclear spin physics for life-science applications. Directions: (1) DNP-enhanced NMR quantum sensing using coupled electron-nuclear spin clusters — designing novel biradical and multi-spin systems achieving 700-fold ¹³C signal enhancement at 14.1 T via P1 center clusters in HPHT diamond (exchange coupling >100 MHz); aiming for in-cell NMR with sensitivity to track water dynamics in a single cell; (2) High-field pulsed EPR at 240 GHz / 8.6 T: time-resolved Gd-Gd EPR (TiGGER) for tracking inter-residue distances during protein functional cycles in solution with sub-nm resolution; rapid-scan field-domain EPR development; (3) Integration of DNP/EPR with nanodiamond-based quantum sensors: coupled electron-nuclear spin cluster design for long-range quantum sensing in biological environments, bridging conventional NMR/EPR and NV-center-based quantum sensing. Han directs the EPR/DNP component of IMSERC (Northwestern's core facility) and brought three new EPR spectrometers and a 600 MHz DNP-NMR system.
Hoffman develops and applies electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy -- a combination of EPR and NMR -- to resolve individual hyperfine-coupled nuclei at metalloenzyme active sites with atomic-scale precision, work that has revealed mechanisms of nitrogenase nitrogen fixation, radical-SAM enzyme catalysis, and copper/methane monooxygenase chemistry. The technique pushes magnetic-resonance spectroscopic resolution well past what conventional EPR can resolve, in a manner methodologically continuous with molecular spin-qubit sensing.
McCamey is, for a candidate coming from NV ensemble sensing, the single most methodologically adjacent PI at UNSW. His laboratory does optically and electrically detected magnetic resonance on spins that are not defects in diamond: photogenerated spin-correlated radical pairs, triplet excitons in organic semiconductors, singlet-fission intermediates, and molecular spin systems. The instrumentation is the same toolkit — pulsed EPR, ODMR, dynamical decoupling, relaxometry — applied to systems where the spin is created by light and reports on chemistry. He directs the UNSW node of ARC Exciton Science. 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 group runs precisely those pulse sequences (Hahn echo, DEER, relaxometry) on a different spin species, and radical-pair spin chemistry is one of the few plausible mechanisms by which biology could be genuinely quantum — which makes this a strong landing spot for someone wanting to keep the NV skill set but change the physical system. Preferred attributes present: sensitivity-limited spin measurement, quantum-biology relevance.
McInnes leads the National EPR Facility at Manchester (Europe's broadest EPR suite) and researches molecular spin qubits. Research directions: (1) Pulsed EPR spectroscopy of molecular spin systems — Hahn echo, ESEEM, ENDOR, DEER for structural and electronic characterization of inorganic and organometallic complexes; (2) Molecular spin qubits — [Cu(mnt)2]²⁻ and related molecules as candidate qubits; measuring coherence times and investigating decoherence mechanisms; (3) Multi-qubit molecular registers — using exchange interactions for two-qubit gates within a molecule; (4) Magnetic sensing applications — molecular systems for magnetic field sensing below the diffraction limit. Partner of NPL M4Q EPSRC Network for Materials for Quantum.
Pla is the strongest single match in this cohort for a candidate whose background is sensitivity-limited spin detection. His laboratory does inductively-detected electron spin resonance at millikelvin using high-quality-factor superconducting microresonators, read out through Josephson and travelling-wave parametric amplifiers operating at the quantum limit of added noise. The result is ESR sensitivity improved by many orders of magnitude over commercial spectrometers — the group's stated target is single-spin inductive detection — and, in parallel, the development of near-ideal degenerate parametric amplifiers and squeezed microwave states as the readout resource that makes it possible. Applications explicitly include chemistry and biology, where the goal is to do EPR on samples far too small for a conventional spectrometer. 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 — this is the microwave-inductive route to the same destination: where an NV ensemble reaches pT/sqrt(Hz) by optical readout of many spins, Pla reaches comparable or better spin sensitivity by making the microwave detection chain quantum-limited, and the DEER and dynamical-decoupling sequences are shared verbatim. Preferred attribute present in the strongest form: cutting-edge sensitivity, not device fabrication, is the object.