QLC: EAGER: Toward Magnetic Selectivity with Molecular Clock Qubits

在该项目中，科罗拉多州立大学化学系的约瑟夫·M·扎德罗兹尼教授在化学系化学结构、动态和机理B计划的资助下，正在开发用于检测生理磁现象的新型金属络合物。这些络合物被设计成量子计算机中基于自旋的量子比特(Qbit)的分子类似物。分子量子比特对其局部环境极其敏感，这种敏感性在量子计算应用中将被抑制。这项拟议中的工作将从一个不同的方向出发，提出一个基本问题：分子量子比特固有的敏感性能否被用来创造新的生物成像传感器？对于这样的应用，人们希望将量子比特的极端敏感性集中在特定的环境因素上。这一计划将向选择性敏感性的愿景迈出基本的第一步。作为该项目的一部分，外联活动包括制作一套学习资料包，指导K-12年级的学生了解基本的磁学现象。一种新生的分子量子比特是所谓的时钟量子比特，它具有较长的自旋晶格和自旋-自旋弛豫时间，这是由于对磁现象的强烈不敏感造成的。这种不敏感性与传统的分子量子比特形成了鲜明的对比，传统的分子量子比特具有强烈受局部磁性影响的弛豫时间。这两类量子比特的相对灵敏度表明了对附近磁性的固有可调性，潜在地使基于驰豫时间的传感探测器能够仅针对特定类型的环境自旋，例如那些出现在不同类型生物分子中的自旋。在这项工作中，一个基于V(IV)分子量子比特的模型系统将探索时钟量子比特行为的核心问题：(1)这些系统如何与不同类别的环境核自旋相互作用？(2)这些时钟量子比特如何与不同类别的近邻电子自旋相互作用？最后，(3)对于某些类型的自旋来说，这种相互作用比其他类型的自旋更受欢迎吗？控制这种支持的因素是什么？这些基本问题中的每一个都是最终针对特定类型的具有自旋的生物相关分子的目标敏感度的基础。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this project, funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamic & Mechanism B Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Joseph M. Zadrozny of the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University is developing new classes of metal complexes for the detection of physiological magnetic phenomena. These complexes are designed as molecular analogues to spin-based quantum bits (qubits) of a quantum computer. Molecular qubits are extremely sensitive to their local environment, a sensitivity that is to be suppressed for quantum computing applications. The proposed work will embark in a different direction by asking the fundamental question: Can the inherent sensitivity of molecular qubits be embraced to create new bioimaging sensors? Toward such application, it is desirable to focus the extreme sensitivity of a qubit toward specific environmental factors. This program will take the first fundamental steps toward that vision of selective sensitivity. Outreach activities as part of this project include the creation of a learning kit to instruct students at the K-12 level on fundamental magnetic phenomena. A nascent type of molecular qubits are the so-called clock qubits, which possess long spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation times that result from a strong insensitivity to magnetic phenomena. This insensitivity stands as a stark counterpoint to conventional molecular qubits, which possess relaxation times that are strongly affected by local magnetism. The relative sensitivity of the two classes of qubits indicates an inherent tunability of susceptibility to nearby magnetism, potentially enabling relaxation-time-based sensing probes to be targeted toward only specific classes of environmental spins, e.g. those that occur in different types of biomolecules. In this work, a model system based on a V(IV) molecule qubit will explore fundamental questions at the heart of clock qubit behavior: (1) How do these systems interact with different classes of environmental nuclear spins? (2) How do these clock qubits interact with different classes of proximate electronic spins? Finally, (3) Is this interaction at all favored for certain classes of spins over others, and what are the factors that govern that favor? Each of these fundamental questions underlies the eventual development of targeted sensitivity toward specific types of spin-bearing biologically relevant molecules.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.