EAGER: Quantum Manufacturing: Manufacturing Integrated Quantum Sensing and Quantum Photonic Technologies Through Direct Bonding of Diamond Membranes

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This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Quantum Manufacturing award supports development of diamond-based heterogeneous quantum materials platforms. Diamond is a unique material relevant to quantum information technologies. Unfortunately, the development of diamond -based integrated quantum technologies remains challenging due the inability to directly grow high-quality diamond on other materials. This research creates new diamond device platforms by the direct bonding of crystalline diamond membranes to functional material platforms. The bonding process will be optimized to preserve the surfaces of the materials and prevent degradation of the delicate quantum states within the diamond. This research will benefit the ongoing US leadership in these fields and further expand national science capabilities in the quantum technologies. The research will have broad and significant impact by vastly improving the scalability of diamond-based quantum technologies, including quantum sensing and quantum communication. This project will also focus on training the next generation of quantum scientists through student-led research while involving multidisciplinary contributions from surface, materials, quantum, and growth sciences. This multi-disciplinary approach will help broaden participation for underrepresented groups in research while positively impacting high level materials science research and education. Heterogeneous quantum material platforms that incorporate diamond will be manufactured by leveraging wafer bonding techniques. The research will focus on determining the surface chemistry and processing conditions necessary to controllably bond diamond membranes to other functional materials while preserving the properties of quantum states within the membranes. The processing will primarily explore low-temperature surface-activated bonding. In this method, the diamond and substrate interfaces are exposed to an optimized atmospheric plasma which leaves the surfaces atomically clean and hydrophilic. Strong covalent bonds can form when the two activated surfaces are brought together and can be further strengthened with annealing. The interface should be defect-free and maintain the quality of the diamond for quantum applications. This project will develop methods to automate the processing and bonding workflow, with a broader vision of developing a quantum materials assembly line. The developed bonding methods will be utilized to bond diamond to (1) to lithium niobate photonic circuits to realize electrically reconfigurable quantum photonics and (2) to glass substrates to generate integrated quantum sensing platforms.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.