Micolich works on semiconductor nanowire and organic/polymer nanoelectronic devices, with two strands relevant here: the physics of low-dimensional transport and noise in nanowire transistors, and the use of those devices as transducers at the interface with biological systems, where a nanowire field-effect transistor acts as an extremely local potentiometer sensitive to charge and potential changes at the cell membrane. The group has a strong record in noise spectroscopy — using 1/f and random telegraph noise as a diagnostic rather than a nuisance. 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 — nanowire FET bioelectronic sensing is the principal electrical competitor to NV-based bio-magnetometry: both aim to read out cellular electrophysiology without patch-clamping, one via magnetic fields at pT/sqrt(Hz), the other via local potential. Borderline inclusion, kept because the bio-interface sensing thread is genuine.

Morello heads the Fundamental Quantum Technologies Laboratory and is the person who first read out the spin of a single electron, and then a single nucleus, in silicon. Current directions: high-spin donors (antimony-123, with eight nuclear levels) used as qudits and as sensors of local strain and electric field; nuclear acoustic resonance, in which a strain wave rather than a magnetic field drives the nuclear spin; engineered decoherence experiments as tests of quantum foundations; and precision tomography of multi-qubit donor registers. The group's donors are among the longest-coherence solid-state spins known (seconds for nuclei). 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 — a single-donor nuclear spin in silicon is functionally an NV centre with better coherence and worse readout: the same DEER, dynamical-decoupling and nuclear-register protocols apply, and the group's high-spin qudit work is aimed at exactly the multi-level sensing enhancements that the NV community is now chasing. Preferred attribute present: sensitivity and coherence, not fabrication, are the limiting variables here.

Studies atomically thin 2D quantum materials and their sensing applications. Directions: (1) tr-ARPES and ultrafast spectroscopy of non-equilibrium electronic dynamics in TMDs and graphene heterostructures; (2) 2D material nanophotonic devices for light sensing and emission; (3) wafer-scale CVD growth of hBN, MoS2, WSe2 for integrated quantum devices; (4) scanning probe characterization of local optical and electronic properties. Key tool: time-resolved photoemission as ultrafast electronic structure sensing.

Reilly's Quantum Nanoscience Laboratory works on the interface between quantum devices and the classical control hardware needed to run them at scale — custom VLSI CMOS operating below 100 mK, high-bandwidth dispersive readout, and cryogenic microwave engineering — a programme built up during his long association with Microsoft's quantum effort. A distinct and directly relevant second thread is the manipulation of spin states in nanoparticles for new imaging modalities in medicine: hyperpolarisation and spin-state engineering of nanoparticle contrast agents, which is quantum control applied to MRI. 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 cryo-CMOS readout chain he builds is exactly the enabling technology that would let a pT/sqrt(Hz) spin-ensemble sensor be multiplexed into an array rather than run one channel at a time; and the nanoparticle-MRI thread is an independent route into biological spin sensing. Large group, strong engineering culture, significant industry entanglement.

Rogge (formerly Delft) works on the spectroscopy of individual dopant atoms in silicon: using transport, STM and microwave spectroscopy to read out the orbital, valley and spin structure of single donors and acceptors, including their coupling to strain, electric fields and each other. The group has mapped the wavefunctions of individual dopants and used acceptor spin-orbit coupling for electric-field-driven spin control. This is single-quantum-object measurement rather than device engineering. 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 — single-donor spectroscopy is the silicon analogue of single-NV work: the same questions about coherence, bath engineering and readout fidelity that fix pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble performance appear here in a platform where the sensor can be placed with atomic precision and interrogated electrically rather than optically.

Sauer co-leads both YbF eEDM experiments at the Centre for Cold Matter together with Tarbutt and Lim. Key contributions: magnetometry for EDM measurement (design and characterisation of precision magnetic field systems for the ultracold eEDM experiment), precision spectroscopy of heavy polar molecules (YbF, lattice eEDM), and development of spin polarisation/analysis schemes. Co-PI on STFC grants for eEDM and magnetometry. Together the group aims to probe the eEDM at the 10^−30 e·cm level — several orders of magnitude improvement over existing measurements from ACME (Harvard/Yale).

Simmons pioneered atomic-precision fabrication in silicon: hydrogen-resist STM lithography, phosphine dosing and epitaxial silicon overgrowth to place individual dopant atoms with sub-nanometre accuracy, then measure them at millikelvin. The programme has produced single-atom transistors, precision dopant arrays used as analogue quantum simulators, and the largest atom-scale device platform in the world; she also founded Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd. The sensing-relevant capability is the single-electron transistor as an exquisitely sensitive electrometer, capable of resolving individual charge transitions and mapping local electrostatic potential at the atomic scale. 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 — her SET electrometry is the charge-domain counterpart to magnetic NV sensing at pT/sqrt(Hz): both are single-quantum-object detectors whose performance is limited by back-action and by the noise of the readout chain. Very large group, strongly fabrication-oriented and commercially entangled, which cuts against the stated preference for sensitivity-limited rather than fabrication-limited work.

Gary Steele's lab works on quantum circuits and mechanical quantum systems, exploring quantum phenomena in nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) and superconducting circuit systems. Research includes: (1) superconducting qubit-membrane optomechanics and electromechanics; (2) circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) — coupling superconducting qubits to phonons; (3) analog quantum simulation with quantum circuits; (4) probing quantum materials (graphene, 2D materials) with superconducting circuits. The group develops novel quantum sensors for mechanical forces and electromagnetic fields.

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.

Yang works on the systems-level physics of silicon spin qubits: operating qubits at elevated temperatures (above one kelvin, where cryo-CMOS control electronics can be co-integrated), valley and spin-orbit engineering, and the electrical control of spin qubits without micromagnets. The 'hot qubit' programme in particular is an engineering argument about where the classical/quantum boundary should sit in a real machine. 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 — raising the operating temperature of a spin sensor while preserving coherence is the same trade a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble makes implicitly by working at room temperature; Yang's work is the silicon community's attempt to buy back some of that convenience. Borderline inclusion — this is quantum computing rather than sensing — retained under the inclusive rubric.