EAGER: Enabling Quantum Leap: Room-temperature Photon Blockade and Quantum Gates Using Quantum Dots in 2D Materials

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Nontechnical description: Remarkable progress in the development of quantum computers has been made in recent years, but leading-edge quantum hardware still suffers from major limitations, including operation only under extreme environments (such as ultracold temperatures) and difficulties in scaling to larger systems. This project focuses on a platform that may alleviate these drawbacks and enable operation of building blocks for quantum computers in friendly environments such as at room temperature, as well as facilitate system scaling. The platform consists of two-dimensional ultrathin materials with quantum dots capable of controllably emitting single photons of light. Such materials are coupled to optical resonators that are able to recirculate photons, ultimately allowing control of the flow of light, and therefore the information in the system. The project includes educational and outreach activities integrated with research, which the PIs have already initiated, including active recruitment of minorities and women for science and engineering careers, development of new classes and textbooks, undergraduate research and advising, and participation in outreach programs for K-12 students and teachers.Technical description: Photon blockade - in which the presence of a single photon in a system (resonator) blocks another photon from entering it - is the ultimate demonstration of a nonlinearity at a single photon level. It is the underlying phenomenon behind many proposals for implementation of nontrivial two photon qubit quantum gates and quantum simulators. This project focuses on the demonstration of photon blockade using a new platform: a single quantum dot created in a two-dimensional material coupled to an optical nanocavity. The platform of 2D materials, which has already been shown to allow single quantum emitter behavior in a variety of systems, provides important advantages in terms of ease of placement of the quantum dot and its spectral tunability. The planned experiments constitute a new approach for quantum science and engineering using two-dimensional materials and have the potential to advance quantum engineering and cavity quantum electrodynamics by enabling room-temperature, scalable experiments.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.