Technique - (23) Rabi oscillations

Type: Experimental

Description: Microwave-driven coherent spin rotations for calibration and characterization.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Institute for Quantum Electronics | Quantum Control for Fundamental Physics Group (Craik Group) @ ETH Zurich
Summary:

Craik leads the RAVIOLIS project (SNSF Starting Grant, started July 2025) measuring atomic parity violation in barium ions at <0.1% precision. Her entanglement protocol uses multi-ion entangled states with photonic integrated waveguide addressing to common-mode-reject parity-conserving systematics. Previous work: precision measurement of Ba+ dipole transition probabilities below 1% uncertainty; first laser-guided individual addressing of Ba+ qubits with <10^-4 intensity crosstalk; isotope-shift spectroscopy in Ca+ for fifth-force searches. She is actively recruiting for postdocs and PhD students for the new Ba+ ion trap experiment.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics / PME | Awschalom Group @ UChicago
Summary:

Pioneer in spintronics and quantum information engineering. Research spans: (1) NV-center spin qubits in diamond for quantum sensing and communication including nanomagnetic imaging; (2) spin defects in SiC and Er-doped hosts for quantum network nodes at telecom wavelengths; (3) molecular and protein-based spin qubits (2025 fluorescent-protein spin qubit, Physics World Top-10); (4) coherent Er spin defects in colloidal nanocrystal hosts (2024, with Alivisatos). Founding Director Chicago Quantum Exchange. Joint Senior Scientist Argonne. Large infrastructure-rich group with strong industry ties (IBM, Intel, Google quantum).

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics / Niels Bohr Institute | BendixLab β€” Biophotonics & Mechanobiology @ UCPH
Summary:

Poul Martin Bendix (Associate Professor, BendixLab/NBI) investigates physical properties of living cells using advanced optical techniques. Research: (1) optical tweezers for mechanosensing β€” GPCR mechanosensing with picoNewton force resolution, membrane curvature sensing by proteins (annexins, BAR-domain proteins); (2) thermoplasmonics β€” gold nanoparticle laser heating for controlled membrane microsurgery, cell fusion, and plasma membrane repair; (3) single-molecule biophysics β€” DNA-protein interactions using 4-trap optical tweezers (LUMICKS C-Trap) with STED imaging; (4) filopodia dynamics β€” twist and rotation of actin filaments; (5) Brillouin microscopy for cell mechanics; (6) COBM center management. GPCRmec consortium (Novo Nordisk). 2026 BPS Annual Meeting featured.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Quantum Control Laboratory @ USyd
Summary:

Biercuk's Quantum Control Laboratory sits precisely at the intersection of control engineering and precision measurement. The group uses trapped ytterbium ions β€” including large 2D Penning-trap crystals β€” as both quantum simulators and as calibrated sensors, and is best known for noise spectroscopy: using the qubit itself as a spectrum analyser of its environment, then designing dynamical-decoupling and open-loop control sequences that null the dominant noise. That programme produced Q-CTRL, his quantum control software company, and more recently a serious push into quantum sensing for navigation (magnetic anomaly navigation, quantum-enhanced RF sensing) as a commercial and defence application. 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 filter-function and noise-spectroscopy formalism is now standard equipment in the NV community for designing the DEER and dynamical-decoupling sequences that deliver pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity; a candidate from that background would find the theoretical toolkit immediately familiar. Large, well-funded group with strong industry pathways.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (ENS / CollΓ¨ge de France site) | Cavity QED / Circular Rydberg Atom Group (Brune/Raimond, LKB at CollΓ¨ge de France) @ Sorbonne
Summary:

Brune leads the Circular Rydberg Atom / Cavity QED group at LKB (Collège de France site), continuing the work of Serge Haroche (Nobel 2012). Note: Brune is employed by ENS, not Sorbonne Université; postdoc contracts are typically ENS/CNRS. Research directions: (1) Circular Rydberg atoms — atoms in extremely high principal quantum number states (n~50) with extremely long radiative lifetimes (~30 ms) and large dipole moments; (2) Cavity QED quantum sensing — single circular atoms probe the microwave field in a superconducting cavity photon-by-photon via quantum non-demolition measurement; (3) Quantum state engineering — generating Fock states, Schrâdinger cat states, and entangled atom-field states in the cavity; (4) Tests of quantum complementarity — observing decoherence of mesoscopic superpositions in real time as a probe of quantum-to-classical transition. The 'quantum radio receiver' using single atoms to sense individual microwave photons is a landmark quantum sensing demonstration.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Laboratory for Solid State Physics | Hybrid Quantum Systems Group (Chu Group) @ ETH Zurich
Summary:

Chu leads the Hybrid Quantum Systems Group coupling mechanical resonators to superconducting circuits and diamond color centers. Research directions: (1) Circuit quantum acousto-dynamics (cQAD) β€” HBAR resonators coupled to transmon qubits achieve single-phonon nonlinearity (coherence/anharmonicity ratio 6.8), mechanical qubit gates demonstrated (arXiv 2406.07360, 2024); (2) Optimal control for high Fock state preparation in bulk resonators; (3) Ultra-cold mechanical quantum sensor β€” cryogenically cooled nanomechanical oscillators as probes for new physics beyond the standard model; (4) Coupling NV/SiV color centers in diamond to acoustic waves for hybrid quantum memory and transduction. Targets long-lived phonon storage for quantum networking and quantum sensing beyond the standard quantum limit.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Sorbonne UniversitΓ© / ENS | Optomechanics and Quantum Measurements Group (Cohadon & Heidmann / LKB) @ Sorbonne
Summary:

Cohadon and Heidmann co-lead the Optomechanics and Quantum Measurements group at LKB. Research directions: (1) Back-action evasion and Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) β€” early demonstration of radiation-pressure back-action in a micro-mirror (Nature 2006), subsequent beating of SQL via quantum correlations; (2) Micro/nanomechanical resonators β€” 2D photonic crystal deformable slabs, membrane-in-the-middle cavities, micropillar resonators for radiation-pressure optomechanics; (3) Superconducting qubit–macroscopic membrane coupling β€” Jacqmin & DelΓ©glise team: resonant coupling of transmon qubit to MHz membrane oscillator, tracking quantum motion with 300 repeated interactions (2025); high-impedance hyperinductors for electromechanics; (4) Gravitational wave detector contributions β€” VIRGO/LIGO data analysis and quantum noise modeling. Applications include back-action-evading force sensing and tests of quantum mechanics at macroscopic scales.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Laboratory for Solid State Physics | Degen Group (Spin Physics and Imaging) @ ETH Zurich
Summary:

Degen leads the Spin Physics and Imaging group, one of the world's leading NV-center magnetometry labs. Research directions (as of 2025): (1) Scanning NV magnetometry of quantum materials β€” NV-tipped cantilevers image current flow (≲50 nm resolution) in graphene heterostructures and resolve domain walls in antiferromagnets/ferroelectrics; cryogenic scanning down to 350 mK in dilution refrigerator (published Appl. Phys. Lett. 2022). (2) Single-molecule NMR β€” shallow NV centers detect nuclear spins from surface-adsorbed molecules with sub-nanometer 3D resolution; 2022 Nano Lett. on amine-functionalized diamond surfaces; exploring chirality-induced spin selectivity at few-molecule level. (3) NV magnetometry protocols β€” reconstruction-free waveform sensing (1.1 ns time resolution, Nature 2025), gradiometric detection, spectrum demodulation for rapid scanning, multi-NV addressing. (4) Diamond nanoengineering β€” multicone pillar waveguides, surface engineering, scanning probe fabrication. ERC Proof-of-Concept 2025 for photonic IC single-photon NV excitation/detection for commercial quantum sensing.

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): Physics (Cavendish Laboratory – AMOP Group) | Quantum Engineering Group (QEG) @ Cambridge
Summary:

Gangloff leads the Quantum Engineering Group at the Cavendish. Research spans three platforms: (1) Semiconductor quantum dots (InGaAs, GaAs) β€” demonstrating optical coherent control of quantum-dot nuclear spin ensembles (magnons, time crystals, many-body quantum registers); developing QD-based quantum repeater nodes (MEEDGARD QuantERA project); (2) Diamond group-IV spin defects (SiV, SnV, GeV) β€” precision positioning and high-purity single-photon generation from tin-vacancy centers; (3) Rydberg excitons in Cuβ‚‚O β€” exploring blockade-based optical quantum gates. The Integrated Quantum Networks Hub co-PI role underpins a broader quantum internet vision.