Biography: Dr. Russell Stutz is currently leading the Commercial Products group of HQS, where he is responsible for the design and build of commercial quantum computers. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Kansas, taking a commission in the US Air Force through the ROTC program upon graduation. As an Air Force officer, he worked on laser research at the Air Force Research Lab, Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland AFB, NM. Dr. Stutz received his PhD from the University of Colorado-Boulder in atomic, molecular, and optical physics in 2010 under the tutelage of his research advisor Eric Cornell. After receiving his PhD, Dr. Stutz has worked industrial research and development at AOSense, a small company in California developing quantum sensors, as well as Lockheed Martin in Colorado. He has been with Honeywell since 2016, and was one of the first employees at the Broomfield, CO site.

Neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers are a promising platform for implementing scalable quantum computers. Here I introduce a system with the ability to individually manipulate a two-dimensional array of nuclear spin qubits. Each qubit is encoded in the ground state manifold of ⁸⁷Sr and is individually addressable by site-selective beams. We observe negligible spin relaxation after 5 seconds, indicating that T₁ ≫ 5 s. We also demonstrate significant phase coherence over the entire array, measuring T₂ ^⋆ = (21 ± 7) s. Capitalizing on these beneficial properties of our optical tweezer platform, we aim to scale this system to a larger array of qubits in a parallelizable manner. Furthermore, these qubits can be entangled utilizing site-selective Rydberg excitation creating a universal gate set.

Ben received his PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder where he worked on Optical Atomic Clocks. Afterwards he worked at Intel on classical computers, at Rigetti on Superconducting Josephson Junctions, and in 2018 founded Atom Computing. He is the CTO of Atom Computing directing R&D efforts both on current systems as well as future systems being built at Atom.

When systems are engineered to relay or extend “quantum weirdness” from the nanoscopic scale of atoms to the macroscopic scale of humans amazing things can happen. Twentieth century quantum systems (the transistor and the laser) ushered in the computer age and the information age, which changed the world. Twenty-first century quantum systems is just emerging, and the disruptive potential is equally tantalizing. Almost all these emergent quantum systems require lasers and photonics, representing both an opportunity and a challenge. In this talk I will discuss the complexity of the lasers-for-quantum space, present the technical and economic landscape, and pose possible paths forward for how lasers and photonics can usher in a new quantum age. I will also present how Vescent, a local company, is playing a critical role in this development and discuss how Colorado talent, at Vescent and in other Colorado Companies, is enabling the quantum 2.0 revolution.

Abstract: Entanglement, the correlations displayed between sub- systems of a multipartite quantum system, is one of the most distinguishing properties of quantum physics and a significant resource for quantum information science and technology. Entanglement swapping is a protocol that enables entanglement of quantum systems that have never interacted. This protocol underpins efforts to realize large-scale quantum networks as the core element of quantum repeaters. Entanglement swapping between entangled photons has been experimentally demonstrated using photons entangled in their polarization, spatial, and temporal degrees of freedom. Here we focus on encoding information in the spectral-temporal mode of single photons. This allows for a multiplexed approach to entanglement swapping that can generate many different entangled two-photon states. The entanglement swapping protocol relies on multimode entangled photon-pair sources and the ability to perform spectrally-resolved single-photon detection. Experimental results demonstrating the generation of 5 nearly-orthogonal two-photon states is presented.

Biography: Brian J. Smith is Professor of Physics at the University of Oregon, where he leads the Optical Quantum Technologies (OQT) research group. Prior to this Dr Smith was Associate Professor of Experimental Quantum Physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford from 2010 to 2016. He was a Senior Research Scientist at the National University of Singapore 2009-2010, where he worked on integrated quantum photonics, and quantum-enhanced sensing. He was a Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellow 2007-2009 at the University of Oxford where he worked on controlled photonic quantum state preparation and manipulation, quantum measurement characterization, and quantum-enhanced sensing. He obtained a PhD in Experimental Quantum Optics from the University of Oregon in 2007 and BA degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2000. Smith’s current research interests lie in the general areas of quantum optics and quantum technologies and their use in probing fundamental quantum physics and realizing quantum-enhanced applications with performance beyond that possible with classical resources. In these fields he has developed approaches for producing non-classical states of light with well-defined mode structure based upon engineered nonlinear optics, methods to coherently manipulate such quantum states, and efficient means to measure the resultant states. Recently his efforts have focused on harnessing the temporal-spectral mode structure of light to enable realization of larger quantum systems. These quantum-optical tools have enabled him to examine fundamental questions in quantum physics, such as the commutation relations for creation and annihilation operations, and experimentally address various quantum-enhanced technologies, for example quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum communications.

Current research: Smith’s current research interests lie in the general areas of quantum optics and quantum technologies and their use in probing fundamental quantum physics and realizing quantum-enhanced applications with performance beyond that possible with classical resources. In these fields he has developed approaches for producing non-classical states of light with well-defined mode structure based upon engineered nonlinear optics, methods to coherently manipulate such quantum states, and efficient means to measure the resultant states. Recently his efforts have focused on harnessing the temporal-spectral mode structure of light to enable realization of larger quantum systems. These quantum-optical tools have enabled him to examine fundamental questions in quantum physics, such as the commutation relations for creation and annihilation operations, and experimentally address various quantum-enhanced technologies, for example quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum communications.

Lecture via Zoom

Abstract: Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors are best known for their revolutionary applications in creating significant energy savings for electric lights (Nobel Prize in Physics 2014). Unlike silicon and the majority of other compound semiconductor materials, GaN is piezoelectric due to its wurtzite symmetry which is noncentrosymmetric. The piezoelectricity creates an electric potential when the material is strained. The piezoelectric potential can cause the electrons and holes to be separated from each other, which is disadvantageous to their radiative recombination efficiency. However, if properly engineered, the piezoelectric potential can enable a suite of applications for future augmented reality, robotics, health care, and quantum information technologies. In this talk, I will introduce the idea of local strain engineering which allows us to engineer the piezoelectric potential in a nanometer length scale by using the GaN nanostructures. I will discuss how the nanostructure’s geometry can be used as a tuning knob to control the optical properties of the material. A simple theoretical model will be presented that can be easily adapted for device design. I will also give a brief overview on various potential applications with the main focus on quantum photonics.

Biography: P.C. Ku received his BS from the National Taiwan University and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, both in electrical engineering. He was awarded the Ross Tucker Memorial Award in 2004 as a result of his PhD research. He was with Intel before joining the University of Michigan where he is currently a professor of electrical engineering and computer science. In 2010, he cofounded Arborlight that was dedicated to solid-state lighting system design and application. He received the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2010.

Lecture via Zoom