Utilizing Organic Chemistry to Address Quantum Information Science Applications

Chernick小组专注于量子信息科学（QIS）应用的复杂，高功能共轭系统的合成有机化学。大量的有机化学研究集中在可再生能源应用中使用的经过电子/能量过程的分子的定制合成和表征上，例如依赖于电荷转移过程的光电器件。这项研究揭示了当器件的操作尺寸降至10纳米以下尺寸范围时出现的关键挑战。为了减小维持计算设备运行的微芯片的尺寸，必须向单分子量子化方向发展。因此，可再生能源器件的研究领域已经扩展到QIS领域，QIS是对量子现象的研究，涵盖了量子隐形传态、量子纠缠和量子计算等研究学科。Chernick小组合成的有机分子被专门设计成太阳能传感器，以产生电子激发态，这些激发态可以填充不同的自旋态和/或经历电荷转移过程。所生成的电荷转移种在同一分子内包含一个缺乏电子的轨道（自由基正离子态）和一个带有附加电子的轨道（自由基阴离子态）。这些电子可以在单重态或三重态中自旋配对。当这些未配对的自旋态以稳定自由基的形式与共价结合的相邻未配对电子在分子内相互作用时，可以填充多个自旋态。这为QIS应用创造单分子有机量子比特的机会打开了大门。

The Chernick group specializes in synthetic organic chemistry of complex, highly functional conjugated systems for quantum information science (QIS) applications. A substantial amount of research in organic chemistry has focused on the tailored synthesis and characterization of molecules that undergo electron/energy processes for use in renewable energy applications, such as optoelectronic devices that rely upon charge transfer processes. This research has revealed key challenges that arise when the operating size of a device drops below the 10 nm size range. To reduce the size of the microchips that sustain the operation of a computing device, advancement to a single-molecule quantized regime is necessary. Hence, the research field of renewable energy devices has branched into the field of QIS, which is the study of quantum phenomena covering research disciplines pertaining to quantum teleportation, quantum entanglement, and quantum computation. The organic molecules the Chernick group synthesize are specifically designed to act as solar energy sensors to produce electronically excited states that can populate different spin states and/or undergo a charge transfer process. The generated charge transfer species contains an orbital lacking an electron (radical cation state) and an orbital with an additional electron (radical anion state) within the same molecule. These electrons can be spin-paired in either a singlet or triplet state. When these unpaired spin-states interact in an intramolecular manner with a covalently bound neighboring unpaired electron in the form of a stable free radical, multiple spin-states can be populated. This opens the door to the opportunity of creating single molecule organic quantum bits for QIS applications.