Junior Quantum Seminar

Event details
Date | 04.02.2025 |
Hour | 09:30 › 11:00 |
Speaker | Sacha Lerch, Sachin Verlekar |
Location | |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Event Language | English |
Please join us for the Junior Quantum Seminar with Sacha Lerch from the Quantum Information and Computing group (QIC) at EPFL who will give the talk "Efficient quantum-enhanced classical simulation for patches of quantum landscapes" and Sachin Verlekar from the Laboratory of Quantum and Nano Optics (LQNO) at EPFL who will give the talk "Single Molecule Phenomena in Plasmonic Nanocavities" on Tuesday February 4th from 9h30-11h.
PLEASE NOTE: The Junior Quantum Series are for gathering the junior quantum community of master's students, PhDs and post-docs at EPFL, to create a non-judgmental space were scientific ideas can be shared between peers. This event is not for Professors or senior researchers.
ABSTRACT:
- Efficient quantum-enhanced classical simulation for patches of quantum landscapes: Only by pushing classical simulation methods to their limits one can fully realize the potential of quantum computers. Given that quantum resources are rather expensive, the best way to make use of them will be to identify key problems where quantum computers are necessary and to identify subroutines in quantum algorithms which can be offloaded onto classical machines.
In this talk, I will introduce our approach to creating a classical surrogate of the expectation landscape—a function that depends on the variational parameters of a quantum circuit [1]. By combining simple quantum measurements with classical techniques, we propose a method for efficiently approximating subregion of a landscape. This work demonstrates how classical and quantum simulations can complement each other, providing a practical framework for simulating quantum algorithms and reducing the need for expensive quantum hardware. ( [1] S. Lerch et al., Efficient quantum-enhanced classical simulation for patches of quantum landscapes. arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.19896 (2024) ) - Single Molecule Phenomena in Plasmonic Nanocavities: In the realm of nanophotonics, understanding the behavior of light in the presence of nanostructures such as plasmonic nanocavities is crucial for designing efficient light-emitting devices and enhancing optical processes. Single emitters—such as fluorescent molecules placed within these nanocavities exhibit alterations in their emission characteristics, governed by the interactions between the emitter and the surrounding electromagnetic fields. Significant progress has been made in fabricating self-assembled plasmonic nanocavities, which enable reproducible nanogaps and high near field enhancement. However, due to contributions from hundreds of molecules in the near-field, it is challenging to apply such nanocavity architectures to reliably study single-molecule phenomena. In this talk, I will present some specific experimental results, backed by electromagnetic simulations, where single molecule sensitivity could be achieved and utilized.
- Sacha Lerch: Sacha is a PhD student in Prof. Zoë Holmes’ Quantum Information and Computing (QIC) group at EPFL. His research attempts an analytical approach to studying and advancing existing methods in both Machine Learning (ML), as applied to quantum problems, and Quantum Machine Learning (QML). He obtained his bachelor's degree in physics at EPFL and his MSc at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Nanosystems (LTPN), led by Prof. Vincenzo Savona, where he first became interested in quantum computing.
- Sachin Verlekar: Sachin is a PhD student at LQNO, led by Christophe Galand at EPFL. His research focuses on understanding and tailoring light emission properties of single emitters in nanoscale plasmonic cavities.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- QSE Center
Contact
- Jiawen Liu ,Valentin Goblot