Collaborative Research: DMREF: Designing Coherence and Entanglement in Perovskite Quantum Dot Assemblies

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With the support of the DMREF Program and the Division of Chemistry, Libai Huang, Jonathan Hood and Christina Li at Purdue University, Jianshu Cao at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Oleg Prezhdo at the University of Southern California are leading a project on designing a new class of quantum materials —one that can enable “wave-like” transport of information and energy from tiny semiconductor particles known as quantum dots. Quantum dots derived from lead halide perovskites, a type of semiconductor material, exhibit extraordinary efficiency in absorbing and emitting light. The principal goal is to understand how these quantum dots can work together, how they communicate, and how to shield this communication from disruptions, a phenomenon known as decoherence. The ultimate aim is to pave the way for the creation of new materials capable of transmitting information and energy in a unique, efficient, and wave-like manner. Such a breakthrough could revolutionize solar cell technology and quantum communications. As part of the project, the team is also committed to sharing their knowledge with a broad audience. This project will also contribute to a more diverse scientific community by offering unique training and educational opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers, with a specific focus on increasing participation from underrepresented groups and, as a collaborative, three-institution team, exploring this exciting nexus of quantum chemistry, physics and materials science.The DMREF project aims to design a new quantum materials platform by exploring the collective properties that arise from coherent and entangled interactions between colloidal lead halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs). The team will use their expertise in ultrafast microscopy, quantum optics, excited-state calculations, quantum dynamics theory, and QD synthesis to answer fundamental questions about how these collective states emerge and how they can be sustained in a solid-state environment. This project is expected to deliver knowledge advancements through a concerted effort to create, characterize, and model the quantum states that would potentially emerge from the collective interactions of QDs. With the goal of establishing robust coherence and entanglement, the team will control coupling across QDs in superlattices and measure the extent of coherence in space and time. Additionally, the strategic placement of these QDs within optical cavities is anticipated to be a critical step towards achieving coherence and entanglement. These insights will enable exploration of the extremely large design space available for perovskite structures, superlattices, and photonic structures. As such, the studies here will lay an important foundation and, in the longer term, has the potential to contribute to groundbreaking advances in quantum materials based on colloidal QDs.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.