Distributed Nanocrystal Arrays for Quantum Electronics and Sensing

摘要：该奖项旨在探索处理金刚石晶体在量子计算、加密、生物标记和转导以及磁场传感等领域应用的基础科学和工程。特别是含氮杂质的金刚石产生氮空位（NV）缺陷中心，可以通过微波、激光信号和电场控制，用于量子电子、医学、国家安全、国防等领域。其中一些应用需要小尺寸的金刚石晶体，其中最好只包含一种类型的缺陷，这些缺陷被排列成隔离的金刚石晶体阵列，以获得最大的灵敏度，单个寻址性和适用性。目标是处理具有这些属性的孤立金刚石晶体阵列，以展示选择性寻址能力，易于读写能力，以及来自量子电子学和磁场传感相关量子现象的增强信号。此外，该项目还为研究生和本科生提供教育和培训，以促进他们在学术界或工业界的劳动力发展和职业发展。这些研究成果被传播到科学界，预计将对几个国家计划产生重大影响，如先进纳米技术、量子信息科学、光电子学、医学和国家安全。该研究项目的科学和技术目标是：(1)通过了解氮原位掺杂、金刚石成核和生长机制、衬底取向以及微波等离子体增强化学气相沉积（MPECV）过程中的外加电场和磁场的作用，对含有取向NV中心的高晶体质量的孤立金刚石晶体阵列的加工进行基础研究；(2)根据晶体在微波和激光照射下的光发射变化，定量表征自旋态的可寻址性；(3)研究孤立金刚石晶体阵列中NV中心的量子现象和磁场传感。这些努力有望为未来量子计算机和固态磁场传感器的发展做出重大贡献。拟议的研究也有望对包括工程、医学、物理和化学在内的几个STEM学科做出广泛贡献。“这个奖项反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Title: Distributed Nanocrystal Arrays for Quantum Electronics and SensingAbstract:This award is to explore fundamental science and engineering for processing diamond crystals for applications in quantum computing, encryption, biolabeling and transduction, and magnetic field sensing. Especially, diamond containing nitrogen impurity creates nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect centers, which can be controlled by microwave, laser signal and electric field for use in quantum electronics, medicine, national security, and defense. Some of these applications require small size diamond crystals containing preferably only one type of defects that are arranged into isolated diamond crystal arrays for greatest sensitivity, individual addressability and applicability. The objectives are to process isolated diamond crystal arrays with these attributes for demonstrating selective addressability, ease in read-write capability, and enhanced signals from associated quantum phenomena for quantum electronics and magnetic field sensing. In addition, the project provides education and training to graduate and undergraduate students towards workforce development and careers in academia or industry. The research findings are disseminated to the scientific community and expected to have significant impacts on several national initiatives such as advanced nanotechnology, quantum information sciences, optoelectronics, medicine, and national security.The scientific and technical aims of the research program are aimed to (1) develop a fundamental research on processing of isolated diamond crystal arrays of high crystal quality containing oriented NV centers created through understanding of the roles of in situ doping by nitrogen, diamond nucleation and growth mechanisms, substrate orientation, and applied electric and magnetic field during processing using Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (MPECV, (2) characterize quantitatively the spin state addressability based on changes to optical emission upon exposure of crystals to microwave and laser light, and (3) study the quantum phenomena and magnetic field sensing using NV centers in isolated diamond crystal arrays. These efforts are expected to significantly contribute towards advancement of future quantum-based computers and solid-state magnetic field sensors. The proposed research is also expected to widely contribute to several STEM disciplines encompassing engineering, medicine , physics and chemistry. "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.