IMX Seminar Series - Quantum sensing for nanoscale materials research and engineering

Quantum two-level systems offer attractive opportunities for sensing and imaging, especially at the nanoscale. In the almost twenty years since its inception, this idea [1] has advanced from proof of concept [2] to a mature quantum technology [3], with broad fields of applications in physics, materials engineering, life-sciences, and beyond.
In this talk, I will present the founding principles and key engineering challenges in the field and highlight particularly rewarding applications of single spin-based quantum sensors. A particular focus will lie on new insights these sensors bring to mesoscopic condensed-matter physics, such as super-conductors [4] or novel magnetic materials. Specifically, I will discuss the use of single-spin quantum sensors to study and engineer atomically thin “van der Waals” magnets [5-7] – an emerging class of magnetically ordered systems that combine fundamental and practical interests and which so far were notoriously hard to address due to their weak magnetization and nanoscale spin-textures.
I will conclude with an outlook on future developments of quantum sensors, such as their use in studying dynamical phenomena in quantum materials [8] or their applications under extreme conditions, such as Tesla-range magnetic fields, or millikelvin temperatures, where new exciting applications wait to be explored.
References:
[1]   B. Chernobrod and G. Berman, J. of Applied Physics 97, 014903
[2]   G. Balasubmaranian et al., Nature 455, 644; J. Maze et al., Nature 455, 644
[3]   N. Hedrich et al. P.R. Appl., 14, 64007; P. Appel et al., Rev. Sci. Instr. 87, 63703;  Qnami.com
[4]   L. Thiel et al., Nature Nanotechnology 11, 677
[5]   C. Gong and X. Zhang, Science 363, 706; M. Gibertini et al., Nature Nano. 14, 408
[6]   L. Thiel et al., Science 364, 973
[7]   F. Tabataba-Vakili et al., Nature Comm. 15, 4735; Tschudin et al., Nature Comm. 15, 6005
[8] S. Chatterchee et al., PRB 99, 104425

Bio: Patrick Maletinsky is full professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Basel, where he has been active since 2012. He has joined the Department after studies of physics at ETH, the école normal supérieure in Paris and JILA in Boulder, followed by a Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and a postdoc at Harvard University. His main research interests are the development of novel, spin-based quantum sensing technologies and their applications to nanoscience and solid-state mesoscopic physics. Next to applications of quantum sensors to fundamental science questions, he is actively involved in transitioning this emerging technology to industrial applications, in part through the startup company Qnami, which he co-founded in 2017. Prof. Maletinsky received an SNSF starting grant in 2015 and an ERC consolidator grant in 2020; he is currently a member of the Swiss Quantum Commission (quantum.scnat.ch) and head of the Basel Physics Department.