Technique - (32) Low-temperature transport measurements

Type: Experimental

Description: Four-probe magnetotransport, Hall effect, and conductance quantization measurements at mK temperatures.

Department(s)/lab(s): Electrical & Electronic Engineering – Photon Science Institute | Halsall Group (Photonics and Semiconductor Spectroscopy) @ Manchester
Summary:

Halsall is a senior PSI photonics researcher focusing on semiconductor spectroscopy and photonic quantum device characterization. Research directions: (1) Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) β€” characterizing defects and impurities in semiconductor quantum device structures (Si, GaN, SiC) that are relevant to qubit coherence; (2) Photoluminescence mapping β€” spatial mapping of optical quality in quantum well and dot wafers for quantum sensing device development; (3) InGaN/GaN quantum wells β€” non-destructive optical characterization of LED and sensor structures; (4) THz and infrared spectroscopy β€” contactless Hall measurements and Drude response for quantum material characterization. Provides photonic metrology tools for characterizing quantum sensing device materials.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Quantum Electronic Devices Group (Hamilton) @ UNSW
Summary:

Hamilton heads the Quantum Electronic Devices group and is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Future Low Energy Electronics (FLEET). The group works on hole-based quantum devices in GaAs and germanium, where strong spin-orbit coupling allows all-electrical spin control, and on topological materials and one-dimensional transport. The measurements are millikelvin transport and noise spectroscopy of very small signals in mesoscopic devices. 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 link is indirect β€” this is charge/spin transport rather than magnetometry β€” but the group's expertise in low-noise cryogenic measurement and in spin-orbit-mediated electrical spin control is directly transferable to electrically-detected spin sensing, which is the main alternative to the optical readout that limits pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensembles. Borderline inclusion; kept under the inclusive rubric.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics & Astronomy – Photon Science Institute | Hibberd Group (THz Spectroscopy and Quantum Materials) @ Manchester
Summary:

Hibberd holds an EPSRC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship at Manchester's PSI. Research directions: (1) Ultrafast THz spectroscopy of magnetic materials β€” probing spin dynamics, magnon modes, and phase transitions in correlated magnetic materials with sub-ps time resolution using intense THz pulses; (2) THz-driven spintronics β€” using THz electric and magnetic fields to switch magnetization and induce spin currents; (3) THz generation from spintronic heterostructures β€” using ultrafast spin-charge conversion as a broadband THz emitter for materials characterization; (4) Quantum magnonics β€” studying collective spin excitations (magnons) as quantum sensors of materials order parameters. Bridges ultrafast optics and quantum sensing of magnetic phases.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Higginbotham Lab @ UChicago
Summary:

Explores boundary between condensed-matter physics and quantum sensing using superconductor-semiconductor circuits. Directions: (1) gate-tunable superconductor-semiconductor parametric amplifier for quantum-limited readout (PRA 2023); (2) room-temperature capacitive strong coupling to mechanical motion for electromechanical sensing (Nano Letters 2025); (3) quantum criticality in Josephson junction arrays; (4) synthetic Hamiltonians in hybrid SC-semi devices probing hidden material behavior. IST Austria β†’ Microsoft β†’ JILA β†’ UChicago Nov 2023.

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

Imamoglu leads the Quantum Photonics Group at ETH, working at the intersection of quantum optics and condensed matter physics. Research directions: (1) Quantum emitters in 2D semiconductors β€” TMD monolayers (MoSe2, WSe2) host localized excitons that act as single-photon emitters; electrically tunable quantum dots in TMD heterostructures with high purity and spin-photon entanglement; developing them as quantum sensors of local electronic correlations at nanometer scales; (2) Strongly correlated electron physics β€” Mott insulator / Wigner crystal phases in moirΓ© TMD bilayers probed optically with single-photon resolution; mapping electronic phases with nanometer spatial resolution; (3) Polariton quantum fluids β€” exciton-polaritons in 2D semiconductor microcavities; (4) Quantum nonlinear optics β€” photon-photon interactions via giant Kerr nonlinearities in strongly coupled quantum dots. Quantum sensing angle: quantum emitters as nanoscale probes of correlated phases.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Melbourne Ion Implantation and Single Ion Group (Jamieson) @ UMelb
Summary:

Jamieson's group built the counted single-ion implantation capability that underpins every donor spin qubit made at UNSW and Melbourne: individual P, Sb or Bi ions are implanted into silicon through a nanoscale aperture while on-chip detector electrodes register the electron-hole pairs from each ion stop event, so the number and position of dopants is known rather than assumed. Recent directions extend this to high-atomic-number donors for nuclear-spin qudits, to colour-centre creation in diamond and silicon carbide by counted implantation, and to characterising the damage and charge environment those ions leave behind. The work is fabrication-forward but its scientific content is single-particle detection metrology. 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€” his contribution is upstream: the deterministic creation and validation of the very spin defects whose ensembles are later interrogated by DEER and nanoscale NMR at pT/sqrt(Hz).

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Ji Quantum Lab @ MIT
Summary:

PREFERRED. Ji is launching the Ji Quantum Lab at MIT to build next-generation scanning-probe and on-chip quantum sensors (millimeter-wave impedance microscopy, 'RFlexiScope') that map nanoscale conductivity, magnetism and collective excitations in strongly correlated and topological quantum materials down to the quantum limit. The lab is explicitly recruiting PhD students, postdocs, and UROPs as of its founding.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Condensed Matter Physics Sub-department) | Quantum Magnonics Group @ Oxford
Summary:

Karenowska leads the Quantum Magnonics group, which develops low-temperature microwave magnonic circuits to probe magnon physics at the quantum level. Core experiments are conducted at millikelvin temperatures in a dilution refrigerator. Research foci include: (1) propagating magnon dynamics in YIG waveguides at mK temperatures β€” measuring spin-wave pulse propagation and characterising the low-temperature ferromagnetic resonance frequency shift; (2) magnon-phonon (phonon-to-magnon) interconversion via magnetoelastic coupling and symmetry breaking in YIG; (3) spin-cat state generation in ferromagnetic insulators β€” theoretical and experimental work toward macroscopic quantum superposition states of magnons; and (4) magnon spintronics β€” spin-charge interconversion in YIG/metal heterostructures. These systems are relevant for microwave quantum information processing and quantum-limited magnetic-frequency-band sensing.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Institute of Physics (IPHYS) | Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (K-Lab) @ EPFL
Summary:

Kippenberg leads the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (K-Lab) at EPFL, pioneer of chip-scale microresonator frequency combs and cavity optomechanics. Research directions: (1) Soliton microcombs β€” dissipative Kerr solitons in Si3N4 microresonators for massively parallel coherent optical communications, precision ranging/LiDAR (Science 2018, Nature 2017); dual-chirped microcomb parallel ranging at megapixel rates; (2) Room-temperature quantum optomechanics β€” phononic-crystal-patterned Si3N4 membrane-in-the-middle cavity reduces frequency noise 700Γ—, observing quantum backaction at room temperature (Nature 2024); (3) Superconducting circuit optomechanics β€” topological lattices, electromechanical sensing (Nature 2022); (4) Free-electron–photon interactions in microresonators. Spin-off companies and strong industry ties. Over 85,000 citations, h-index ~80.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications | Laucht Quantum Control and 2D Materials Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Laucht works on the quantum control of spins across two platforms: donor spin qubits in silicon (with Morello and Dzurak), where he demonstrated electrically-driven single-spin control in a continuous microwave field and pioneered dressed-state protection against decoherence; and, more recently, spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride β€” a 2D material whose optically addressable spin defects are the most promising candidate for a van der Waals analogue of the NV centre, with the enormous advantage that the sensor can be placed a single atomic layer from the sample. 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€” hBN spin defects are the field's most active attempt to beat the standoff-distance limitation that caps near-surface NV ensemble sensitivity; a candidate with NV ODMR experience would be immediately productive here, running the same pulse sequences on a new defect. Strong fit.