Seminar by Trisha Madhavan - PhD student in the group of Prof M. Lukin, Harvard University, USA

Toward On-Chip Spin Magnetomechanics with Levitated Systems

Interfacing quantum nonlinearities with the mechanics has become an exciting research direction with long term applications such as unprecedented quantum sensitivity and mechanically-mediated quantum networks. We demonstrate spin-mechanical coupling on a novel platform comprised of a mechanical resonator and a spin qubit. The mechanical resonator consists of a micromagnet in a three-dimensional trap formed by a planar superconductor, offering excellent environmental isolation and a high magnetic field gradient-to-mass ratio. We choose to work with NV centers in diamond as our spin qubit due to their long coherence times, large magnetic coupling, and optical initialization and readout. Coupling between the resonator and the spin is achieved by bringing the magnetic resonator in close proximity to an NV center. Recent improvements to the platform will allow us to achieve stronger spin-mechanical couplings, enabling near-term milestones such as the detection of quantum backaction, and eventually cooling of the resonator.

Trisha is a third year PhD student in Mikhail Lukin's Nanomechanics subgroup at Harvard University. She has developed the group's diamond-superconductor device fabrication methods and focuses on the optimizing material properties of the experiment. Before starting her PhD at Harvard, she worked in the group of Nathalie de Leon exploring the material platform for superconducting qubits to extend qubit lifetimes.