Quantum spin-optomechanics

量子技术有望增强我们安全通信、分析复杂问题的能力，并实现探测和监控我们世界的强大传感器。他们通过利用量子系统的特性——电子、光子、声波——来实现这一目标，这些特性构成了进入我们家庭和电脑的信号。量子器件的进步——以量子光学或电子电路为模式的微芯片——使得在这些量子系统上执行精细操作变得越来越容易，导致谷歌和IBM等老牌公司以及加拿大的Xanadu和D-Wave等初创公司在量子技术上取得了广泛的突破。尽管令人兴奋，但要将量子技术从原理验证演示转变为影响日常生活的现成资源，还必须克服许多技术和基础挑战。其中一个挑战是互连问题：我们如何在不破坏它们的量子特性（即改变它们的量子态）的情况下，将由广泛不同的物理系统创建的量子技术连接起来？例如，这一挑战阻碍了当今最强大的量子计算机连接到微观量子存储器或光网络，而后者可能构成“量子互联网”的主干。幸运的是，量子设备的创新正在出现，以应对这些挑战。该提案描述了巴克莱和他的团队将如何利用世界领先的纳米制造能力来制造量子设备，这些设备可以连接彼此不兼容的物理系统。这些设备围绕着实验室用钻石制造量子设备的开创性方法，钻石是一种以芯片形式出售的材料，其缺陷-杂质-宿主电子的量子态相对不受外界噪音的影响。这些量子态与电子可以拥有的不同自旋有关，它们构成了原子大小的量子比特的基础，也是量子技术研究人员非常感兴趣的领域。基于最近金刚石量子器件开发的突破，该提案将在金刚石自旋量子比特与量子通信和计算硬件之间创建接口。这些量子接口将利用机械谐振器的振动能力与许多不同类型的量子系统耦合：光子、超导量子电路和自旋量子比特。他们的基础技术还将导致将自旋量子比特相互连接的架构，以及用于探测纳米级材料的强大量子传感平台。该项目建立在最近对最先进的研究基础设施（2017年和2021年主要CFI创新基金奖）的投资基础上，并将使加拿大成为竞争激烈、快速增长的量子研究领域的领导者。

Quantum technologies promise to enhance our ability to communicate securely, analyse complex problems, and realise powerful sensors for probing and monitoring our world. They achieve this by harnessing properties of the quantum systems-electrons, photons, sound waves-that make up the signals that stream into our homes and computers. Advances in quantum devices-microchips patterned with quantum optical or electronic circuits-are making execution of delicate operations on these quantum systems increasingly accessible, leading to widely publicised breakthroughs in quantum technology by established companies like Google and IBM, and by start-ups such as Xanadu and D-Wave in Canada. Despite this excitement, there are many technical and fundamental challenges that must be overcome to move quantum technologies from proof-of-principle demonstrations to readily available resources that impact everyday life. One of these challenges is the interconnect problem: how can we interface quantum technologies created from widely differing physical systems without destroying their quantum properties, i.e. changing their quantum state? This challenge prevents, for example, today's most powerful quantum computers from being connected to microscopic quantum memories or to optical networks that could form the backbone of a "quantum internet". Fortunately, innovations in quantum devices are emerging to address these challenges. This proposal describes how the world leading nanofabrication capabilities of Barclay and his group will be used to create quantum devices that connect physical systems that are otherwise incompatible with each other. These devices are centered around the lab's pioneering approach to fabricating quantum devices from diamond, a material that is commercially available in chip form and whose imperfections-impurities-host electrons whose quantum states are relatively impervious to the noisy outside world. These quantum states, which are related to the different spin that electrons can possess, form the basis for atomic sized qubits and are of intense interest to quantum technology researchers.  Building on a recent breakthrough in diamond quantum device development, this proposal will create interfaces between diamond spin qubits and quantum communication and computing hardware. These quantum interfaces will harness the ability of vibrations of mechanical resonators to couple to many different types of quantum systems: optical photons, superconducting quantum circuits, and spin qubits. Their underlying technology will also lead to architectures for connecting spin qubits to each other, and to powerful quantum sensing platforms for probing nanoscale materials. This project builds on recent investments in state-of-the-art research infrastructure (major CFI Innovation Fund awards in 2017 and 2021) and will position Canada as a leader within a highly competitive and rapidly growing area of quantum research.