Crozier holds a joint Physics/Electrical Engineering chair and runs a nanophotonics laboratory spanning plasmonic and dielectric metasurfaces, on-chip optical trapping and manipulation of nanoparticles and cells, mid-infrared spectroscopy and detection with metasurface-enhanced and colloidal-nanocrystal devices, and light emission from 2D semiconductors. The unifying theme is engineering the local optical density of states to increase the signal available from a very small number of emitters or molecules. 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 plasmonic and dielectric antenna work is the same physics used to raise photon collection efficiency and hence the shot-noise floor of NV-ensemble magnetometers operating at pT/sqrt(Hz). Note: a substantial fraction of the group's output is device fabrication rather than sensitivity-limited measurement, which is a caveat against the stated preference.

Unnithan runs a sensor-engineering group spanning plasmonic colour filters and metasurface-based CMOS image and spectral sensors, thermal/hyperspectral cameras, machine learning on sensor data, and — the relevant thread here — the engineering and packaging of quantum diamond magnetometers, in a joint programme with the Melbourne physics groups and Phasor Innovation aimed at navigation, subsurface sensing and eventual healthcare use. He has extensive industry links (Hort-Eye, KDH) and an entrepreneurial orientation. 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 role in that collaboration is on the readout, optics and integration side rather than the spin physics, i.e. turning a laboratory pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble into a fielded instrument. Caveat against the stated preference: this group is substantially device-fabrication and product-oriented rather than sensitivity-limited fundamental measurement.

Roberts leads Melbourne's optics group and is a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS). The work is about extracting information that conventional intensity imaging discards: metasurface-encoded point spread functions that recover the full polarisation state or quantitative phase in a single shot, subwavelength structures for edge enhancement and optical computing, and vectorial beam shaping. For a quantum-sensing candidate the relevant hook is that meta-optics is becoming the standard way to miniaturise the optical front end of NV, atomic-vapour and single-molecule sensors, and to add orientational sensitivity to imaging. 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 metasurface collection optics and polarisation-resolved detection schemes are being applied to improve photon collection efficiency and orientational discrimination in exactly the NV-ensemble geometries used for pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry. Preferred attribute present: orientation-resolved methods that push past standard resolution limits.