RAISE-TAQS: Room-Temperature Quantum Sensing and Computation using DNA-based Excitonic Circuits

摩尔定律（Moore’s Law）终结了。摩尔定律是一个著名的观察，即硅基集成电路和个人计算设备中的晶体管数量大约每年翻一番。未来十年的一个主要挑战是找到传统硅基计算的可行替代方案。为了满足世界范围内几乎所有生活领域不断增长的计算需求，需要这样的替代方案。量子信息处理器可能是满足这一需求的一个可行的替代方案。通过利用量子力学现象，量子计算机的计算能力可能会超过传统硅基集成电路的数量级。然而，迄今为止，量子信息处理需要在高度隔离和受保护的环境中在超低温下运行。目前还没有可行的量子信息处理平台可以在室温或潮湿条件下运行。如果它们确实存在，这样的量子系统可以用于量子增强传感等任务。在这个项目中，结构化的DNA电路被用来构建在室温和液态下工作的基于量子的处理和传感设备。基于dna的量子传感和信号处理设备的基本原理正在建立并应用于实际的量子信息处理挑战，以证明这种革命性方法解决各种社会计算需求的可行性。一个由化学、生物工程、材料科学和电气工程研究人员组成的跨学科团队将追求这种面向室温信息处理器的变革方法，并培养下一代跨学科量子计算机科学家和工程师。经典的硅基计算已经达到了极限，无法在不同的应用领域解决日益复杂、资源密集型的计算挑战。相比之下，基于量子的系统通过利用量子力学现象，为模拟、传感、计算和计量方面的变革性技术进步提供了无数的可能性。通过量子力学的独特物理，量子系统处理或交换的信息可以超越经典的计算架构，并以前所未有的灵敏度测量环境变量。然而，量子系统在各种应用领域的部署一直受到量子态对始终存在的噪声热浴的脆弱性的阻碍，从而限制了当前量子器件在低温下的操作。因此，需要对新的量子信息处理和传感体系结构进行基础研究，特别是对于室温和生物医学应用的设备部署。在这里，基于生物分子材料的受控激子状态开发了新的量子电路。高度可编程DNA纳米结构的结构控制和单分子寻址能力与合成染料一起作为量子相干激子系统的工程平台。利用dna支架控制不同激子态的位置和能量，可以将量子位集成到高阶电路中，从而创建多量子位系统和器件。采用紧密耦合的理论和实验方法设计和评价突现量子比特函数。新型、高冲击室温量子传感和信息处理设备被制造和表征，具有集成到下一代量子技术原型的潜力。该奖项反映了美国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。

Moore's Law, the well-known observation that the number of transistors in silicon-based integrated circuits and personal computing devices doubles approximately every year, has ended. A major challenge for the next decade is to identify viable alternatives to traditional, silicon-based computing. Such alternatives are needed to meet the ever-increasing worldwide computational demands in almost all areas of life. Quantum information processors may be one viable alternative to meet this demand. By taking advantage of quantum mechanical phenomena, the computational power of quantum computers may exceed by orders of magnitude that of conventional, silicon-based integrated circuits. However, to date quantum information processing is required to operate at ultra-cold temperatures in highly isolated and protected environments. No viable quantum information processing platform exists that functions at room temperature or in wet condition. If they did exist, such quantum systems could be used for tasks such as quantum-enhanced sensing. In this project, structured DNA circuits are used to construct quantum-based processing and sensing devices that operate at room temperature and in the liquid state. Foundational principles of DNA-based quantum sensing and signal processing devices are being established and applied to practical quantum information processing challenges to demonstrate viability of this revolutionary approach to address diverse societal computing needs. An interdisciplinary team of investigators from chemistry, biological engineering and materials science, and electrical engineering will pursue this transformative approach towards room-temperature information processors, and train the next-generation of interdisciplinary quantum computer scientists and engineers Classical silicon-based computing has reached its limit for solving increasingly complex, resource-intensive computational challenges in diverse application areas. In contrast, quantum-based systems enable a myriad of possibilities for transformative technological advances in simulation, sensing, computation, and metrology by harnessing quantum mechanical phenomena. Through the unique physics of quantum mechanics, quantum systems process or exchange information that can surpass classical computing architectures and measure environmental variables with unprecedented sensitivity. However, deployment of quantum systems to diverse application arenas has been encumbered by the fragility of quantum states to the ever-present noisy thermal bath, thereby limiting the operation of current quantum devices to cryogenic temperatures. For this reason, fundamental investigations into new quantum information processing and sensing architectures are needed, particularly for the deployment of devices for room-temperature and biomedical applications. Here, novel quantum circuits are developed based on controlled excitonic states of biomolecular materials. The structural control and single-molecule addressability of highly programmable DNA nanostructures are leveraged together with synthetic dyes as an engineering platform for quantum-coherent excitonic systems. Controlling the positions and energies of distinct excitonic states using DNA-based scaffolds enables the integration of qubits into higher-order circuits to create multi-qubit systems and devices. Closely coupled theory and experiment are used to design and evaluate emergent qubit function. Novel, high-impact room-temperature quantum sensing and information processing devices are fabricated and characterized, with potential for integration into prototypical next-generation quantum technologies.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.