Q-Nano

Hasselt University has built a significant expertise in room temperature quantum measurements on diamond spin defects. However, cooling down the solid-state spin system offers the opportunity to explore numerous physical phenomena and new applications. The main aim of the Q-Nano equipment funding, received in 2022, is to further develop our work on solid-state devices using NV and other defect qubits by expanding our quantum research from room temperature to low temperatures of several Kelvin. This project involves a collaboration with KULeuven, which has expertise in the field of nanofabrication. Q-Nano plans the installation of a low temperature quantum spin light microscope - including spin-state driving using an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) - at UHasselt and at the same time the installation of a Dynamic Holographic Profilometer at KULeuven. These pieces of equipment are expected to open new research directions, for example for the study of single photon sources (required in the dynamically developing field of quantum communication) and quantum processors, for material science (investigation of electronic and magnetic properties of solids) and for the fundamental study of hybrid quantum systems such as entangled mechanical cavities and spins ensembles.