February 17, 2021
We hope you can join us for our first faculty candidate on Thursday, February 25, 2021 with Dr. Karan Mehta from ETH Zürich.
Speaker: Dr. Karan Mehta – ETH Zürich
Title: Integrated photonic and atomic quantum systems
Date/Time: Thursday, February 25, 10:30 a.m. (PST)
Zoom Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94980246325
Zoom Password: 02252021
Title: Integrated photonic and atomic quantum systems
Abstract:
Practical and useful quantum information processing requires significant advances over current systems in error rates and robustness of basic operations, and at the same time in scale. The high coherence and precise control possible with trapped atomic ion qubits are promising for long-term systems, but the optics required pose a major challenge in scaling. Interfacing low-noise atomic qubits with scalable integrated photonics [1] is a promising route forward, enabling practical extensibility while simultaneously lending robustness to noise. I will describe recent experiments utilizing foundry-fabricated ion trap devices with integrated waveguide optical delivery, which have allowed us to realize multi-ion entangling quantum logic with fidelities competitive with the highest achieved across qubit platforms [2]. Aside from the stability and scalability afforded by these techniques, I will discuss how they allow generation of optical field profiles enabling new physical operations, new photonics motivated by atomic systems broadly, and additional possibilities for systems at this interface to advance future experiments in areas including sensing and precision metrology.
[1] K.K. Mehta, C.D. Bruzewicz, R. McConnell, R.J. Ram, J.M. Sage, and J. Chiaverini. “Integrated optical addressing of an ion qubit.” Nature Nanotechnology 11, 1066-1070 (2016). [2] K.K. Mehta, C. Zhang, M. Malinowski, T.-L. Nguyen, M. Stadler, and J.P. Home. “Integrated optical multi-ion quantum logic.” Nature 586, 533-537 (2020).
Bio:
Karan Mehta received BS. Degrees from UCLA in Physics and Electrical Engineering in 2010, and then began his graduate work as a DOE Science Graduate Fellow at MIT, completing his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2017. Since 2017 he has been at ETH, as an ETH Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently senior scientist in the Physics department. His current research interests include trapped-ion techniques, optics and integrated photonics, and quantum information.