A UW research team, led by UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li, has found a way to leverage the “breathing,” or mechanical vibration, between two layers of atoms, engineering a new building block for quantum technologies.
Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian joined UW ECE in March 2022. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications.
Poovendran will be the UW lead for a new, multi-university institute, which is developing approaches that leverage AI to defend against cyberthreats that target the security and privacy of computer networks and their users.
UW ECE is proud to announce alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony.
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Michael Taylor (left) as well as UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li (right) are participating in UW proposals related to AI, chip design and microelectronics technologies.
Kai-Mei Fu, who is the Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, is part of a larger group of experts working to solidify Seattle's stance in the field of quantum computing.
A UW research team, led by UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li, has found a way to leverage the “breathing,” or mechanical vibration, between two layers of atoms, engineering a new building block for quantum technologies.
Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian joined UW ECE in March 2022. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications.
Poovendran will be the UW lead for a new, multi-university institute, which is developing approaches that leverage AI to defend against cyberthreats that target the security and privacy of computer networks and their users.
UW ECE is proud to announce alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony.
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Michael Taylor (left) as well as UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li (right) are participating in UW proposals related to AI, chip design and microelectronics technologies.
Kai-Mei Fu, who is the Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, is part of a larger group of experts working to solidify Seattle's stance in the field of quantum computing.
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[post_content] => By Wayne Gillam | UW ECE News
[caption id="attachment_31109" align="alignright" width="500"]
An illustration of an array of single-photon emitters (also known as “quantum emitters”) developed by the UW research team. These emitters are a critical component for quantum technologies based on light and optics. In the illustration, the blue and gold dots represent two layers of tungsten and selenium atoms, and each raised bump is the location of what is called a “strain-induced quantum dot.” The research team used these quantum dots to create the quantum emitters, which can be selectively activated to generate photons and mechanical vibrations between the atomic layers, which in turn can be used to encode and transmit quantum information. The four red triangles represent light emitted from four quantum emitters — each generating one photon at the same energy level as the others. Illustration provided by Ruoming Peng[/caption]
A UW research team, led by UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li, has found a way to leverage the “breathing,” or mechanical vibration, between two layers of atoms, engineering a new building block for quantum technologies.
The act of breathing is primal. People breathe, animals breathe, and in a certain sense, plants and even non-living things such as oceans and the Earth itself demonstrate their own types of respiration processes. Big and small, natural systems that breathe, or exhibit behavior strikingly similar to breathing, can be found throughout the world. So, with that in mind, it should be no surprise that this sort of “breathing” phenomena also takes place on the atomic level.
Recently, a University of Washington research team discovered that they could detect atomic “breathing,” that is, the mechanical vibration between two layers of atoms, by observing the type of light those atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser. The group’s discovery will allow them to use the sound of this atomic “breath” to encode and transmit quantum information. And because of that, a device developed by the team could serve as a new type of building block for quantum technologies, which are widely anticipated to have many future applications in fields such as computing, communications, and sensor development.
The cross-departmental team was led by Mo Li, who is a professor and the associate chair for research in the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (UW ECE). Li holds a joint appointment with the physics department, is a member of the steering committee for QuantumX, and is a faculty member of the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. He noted that this research aimed to provide scientists and engineers with a new resource for developing quantum computing circuitry.
“This is a new, atomic-scale platform, using what the scientific community calls ‘optomechanics,’ in which light and mechanical motions are intrinsically coupled together,” Li said. “It provides a new type of involved quantum effect that can be utilized to control single photons running through integrated optical circuits for many applications.”
Li and his colleagues described this quantum platform in detail in a paper recently published in Nature Nanotechnology. The interdisciplinary UW research team included graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and professors from electrical and computer engineering, physics, and materials science and engineering.
A hybrid platform for quantum computing
[caption id="attachment_31115" align="alignright" width="500"]
The UW research team included Adina Ripin (left), lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the physics department, Ruoming Peng (center), co-lead author and a recent UW ECE graduate (Ph.D. ‘22), and senior author Mo Li (right), a professor in UW ECE and the physics department and the UW ECE associate chair for research.[/caption]
This research grew from previous work by the Mo Li Group on a quantum-level quasiparticle called an “exciton.” This quasiparticle is important because information can be encoded into an exciton and then released from it in the form of a photon — a tiny particle of energy considered to be the quantum unit of light. Quantum properties of each photon emitted (such as the photon’s polarization, wavelength and/or emission timing) can function as a quantum bit of information, or “qubit,” for quantum computing and communication. And because this qubit is carried by a photon, it travels at the speed of light.
“The bird’s-eye view of this research is that to feasibly have a quantum network, we need to have ways of reliably creating, operating on, storing and transmitting qubits,” said Adina Ripin, a lead author of the paper, member of the Mo Li Group, and a doctoral student in the physics department. “Photons are a natural choice for transmitting this quantum information because optical fibers enable us to transport photons long distances at high speeds, with low losses of energy or information.”
The research team worked with excitons with the aim of creating a single photon emitter, or “quantum emitter,” which is a critical component for quantum technologies based on light and optics. Prevailing quantum emitters in the field often use defects in atomic lattices (such as those found in pink-colored diamonds) as a source for photon emission; however, scientists and engineers who create a quantum emitter in this manner can be at the mercy of wherever the defects happen to occur naturally in the lattice. By contrast, the UW team wanted to be able to determine exactly where the quantum emitter would be located within its supporting material.
To do this, the team used two extremely thin layers of tungsten and selenium atoms, known as tungsten diselenide, and placed one layer on top of the other. These layers are so thin — each is only one atom thick — that for practical purposes, they are considered two-dimensional.
“Two-dimensional quantum materials such as this are really interesting systems for storing quantum information because the reduced dimensionality of the material leads to many unique quantum states that are extremely stable,” Ripin explained.
The team pressed the two layers of tungsten diselenide onto a substrate, prepared with hundreds of microscopic pillars, each only 200 nanometers wide. The atomic layers draped over these nanopillars, which created a slight strain in the material. The tension at the site of each nanopillar produced what is known as a “strain-induced quantum dot.” It is these quantum dots that isolated excitons within a confined space and allowed the team to create the quantum emitter on the substrate exactly where they desired.
By applying a precise pulse of laser light, the team was able to knock a tungsten diselenide atom’s electron away from the nucleus, which generated an exciton quasiparticle. Each exciton the team produced consisted of a negatively charged electron on one layer of the tungsten diselenide and a positively charged hole where the electron used to be on the other layer. And because opposite charges attract each other, the electron and the hole in each exciton were tightly bonded to each other. After a short moment, as the electron dropped back into the hole it previously occupied, the exciton emitted a single photon encoded with quantum information — producing the quantum emitter the team sought to create.
Phonons as a resource for transmitting quantum information
In the midst of their research, the team discovered that the tungsten diselenide atoms were emitting more than photons and excitons. The atoms were also producing another type of quasiparticle, known as a phonon. Phonons are a product of atomic vibration, which occurs in all matter in a natural process that can be seen as similar to breathing — think of the phonon as the sound of the “breath” between atoms. In this context, the phonons were generated by the vibration between the two atomic layers of the tungsten diselenide, which acted like tiny drumheads vibrating relative to each other. In general, phonons can be thought of as quantum-level sound waves, conceptually similar to photons being quantized light waves.
This was the first time phonons have ever been observed in a single photon emitter in such a two-dimensional atomic system. When the team measured and examined the spectrum of the emitted light, they noticed several intriguing and equally spaced peaks. And thanks to expert analysis from team member Ting Cao, a quantum theorist and an assistant professor in materials science and engineering, they soon discovered that every single photon emitted by an exciton was coupled with one, two, three or more phonons. This is somewhat akin to climbing a quantum energy ladder one rung at a time, and on the spectrum, these energy spikes were represented visually by the equally spaced peaks.
“A phonon is the natural quantum vibration of the tungsten diselenide material, and it has the effect of vertically stretching the exciton electron-hole pair sitting in the two layers,” Li explained. “This has a remarkably strong effect on the optical properties of the photon emitted by the exciton that has never been reported before.”
The team was inspired by their discovery to generate ideas for harnessing the phonons for quantum technology. Through applying electrical voltage, they found that they could vary the interaction energy of the associated phonons and emitted photons. These variations were measurable and controllable in ways relevant to encoding quantum information into a single photon emission. And this was all accomplished in one integrated system — a device that involved only a small number of atoms.
“I find it fascinating that we were able to observe a new kind of hybrid quantum platform,” said Ruoming Peng, who was also a lead author of the paper and graduated with his doctoral degree from UW ECE in 2022. “By studying the way phonons interact with quantum emitters, we discovered a whole new realm of possibilities for controlling and manipulating quantum states. This could lead to even more exciting discoveries in the future.” Peng is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and plans to continue research in similar quantum systems.
Next steps for the research team will include building a waveguide — fibers on a chip that catch single photon emissions and direct them where they need to go — and scaling up the system. Instead of controlling only one quantum emitter at a time, the team wants to be able to control multiple emitters and their associated phonon states. This will enable the quantum emitters to “talk” to each other, building a solid base for quantum circuitry.
“Our overarching goal is to create an integrated system with quantum emitters that can use single photons running through optical circuits and the newly discovered phonons to do quantum computing and quantum sensing,” Li said. “This advance certainly will contribute to that effort, and it helps to further develop quantum computing, which, in the future, will have many applications.”
Adina Ripin, Ruoming Peng, Xiaowei Zhang, Srivatsa Chakravarthi, Minhao He, Xiaodong Xu, Kai-Mei Fu, Ting Cao, and Mo Li are authors of “Tunable phononic coupling in excitonic quantum emitters,” which is the research paper described in this article. Learn more at the Mo Li Group website, or contact Mo Li for more information. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation through the Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C) at the UW. Adina Ripin is also supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
[post_title] => The ‘breath’ between atoms — a new building block for quantum technology
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[post_content] => Article by Wayne Gillam, photos by Ryan Hoover | UW ECE News
[caption id="attachment_31043" align="alignright" width="600"]
UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian joined the Department in March 2022. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications.[/caption]
UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian says she enjoys learning new things and looking at problems from different points of view. That’s probably a good thing, because as a researcher and educator who specializes in quantum information science and technology, or QIST, she is often presented with new and multifaceted challenges.
QIST is an emerging field that blends electrical and computer engineering with the physics of quantum mechanics, and it provides researchers like Mouradian with tantalizing opportunities to achieve far-reaching, positive impact. For example, in the future, quantum computers are widely expected to outpace today’s fastest supercomputers on certain problems in cryptography, molecular simulation, and possibly other areas as well. But there are still many difficult challenges ahead to reach this vision, including managing errors in sensitive quantum systems caused by interactions with the environment, designing architectures that enable quantum computers at a scale needed for practical tasks, and developing high-quality quantum hardware.
According to Mouradian, QIST needs people from several different disciplines working together to solve the wide array of problems involved with making quantum technologies for future applications. But this is a challenge she appears to relish.
“What I like most about quantum information processing, and my research in general, is that it brings together so many different fields,” Mouradian said. “It involves optics, electronics, nanofabrication and atomic physics. There’s a lot of different topics that one can work on within the large umbrella of QIST.”
Mouradian joined UW ECE in March 2022 as part of a UW College of Engineering cluster hiring initiative in QIST, which also included faculty hires in mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, and computer science and engineering. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications in computing, communication and sensing. Mouradian’s lab is in the NanoES building on campus, and it involves a sizable number of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral associate.
“Everything around us is quantum, because everything is made up of atoms, but we usually see only the ensemble, classical properties,” Mouradian said. “In my lab, we’re building technologies that can control individual atoms and engineer interactions at the atomic level. This will help to increase our control over the quantum world.”
Mouradian is also making her mark as an educator at UW ECE, teaching a mix of undergraduate and graduate students and leading hands-on courses such as the Quantum Information Practicum, which is part of the recently established UW Graduate Certificate in Quantum Information Science and Engineering.
“Since joining our Department, Sara has hit the ground running,” UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins said. “She has already proven to be an invaluable member of UW ECE and our University community. I’m excited to see what she will accomplish in the future in regard to her research and fostering new opportunities for our students.”
Finding a collaborative environment for quantum research
Mouradian became interested in quantum technologies while pursuing her undergraduate degree at MIT and began her work in quantum computing while completing a senior research project. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from MIT in 2010, 2012, and 2018, respectively. Before joining UW ECE, she worked as an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.
While at UC Berkeley, Mouradian became interested in melding the classical electrical engineering she studied while pursuing her doctoral degree with the more physics-focused work she was doing in her postdoctoral fellowship. She said she liked the fact that the UW is a public university and saw UW ECE as being open to supporting research that was on the edges of traditional electrical engineering — where QIST exists. She also noted the network of support for quantum research across the UW.
“There was already such a strong recognition that quantum was really important here, through organizations such as QuantumX,” Mouradian said. “So, it felt to me like I was joining a community that was already up and running.”
Everything around us is quantum, because everything is made up of atoms, but we usually see only the ensemble, classical properties. In my lab, we’re building technologies that can control individual atoms and engineer interactions at the atomic level. This will help to increase our control over the quantum world. — UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian
At the UW, Mouradian’s lab focuses on engineering challenges involved in using trapped calcium ions for quantum information processing. Mouradian sees using trapped ions as one of the best options available for significantly scaling up quantum systems to the level needed for practical applications. These ions are stable and capable of holding and transmitting quantum bits of information, or “qubits,” which form the basis for quantum computing.
“Every calcium ion qubit is exactly the same,” Mouradian said. “As an electrical engineer, that’s nice, because it means that the problems for trapped ions and quantum computing are mostly classical engineering problems.”
Since joining the UW, Mouradian has found no shortage of collaborators to work on those classical engineering problems with her. She has consulted with professors Mo Li and Arka Majumdar about how to use optical systems they are developing to help control trapped ions. She frequently discusses quantum theory and how it applies to her lab experiments with fellow QIST cluster hire Rahul Trivedi. And professor Scott Hauck and his students have been assisting Mouradian’s lab with designing electronic controls for quantum systems. She also has been working with Max Parsons, director of the Quantum Technologies Training and Testbed (QT3) Lab to build more opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research.
Educating the next-generation quantum workforce
[caption id="attachment_31049" align="alignright" width="450"]
Outside of the UW, Mouradian is an editor for PRX Quantum, an open-access journal that is part of the American Physical Society.[/caption]
Mouradian has been enhancing academic pathways for students through avenues such as the QT3 Lab, the Quantum Information Practicum, and the ENGINE Showcase, where students from the Practicum will be presenting their work this year. She noted that determining academic and career goals is not necessarily an easy task for students. And in fact, when she herself was a student at MIT, it wasn’t always clear to her which academic direction she should pursue.
“It took me a while to acknowledge that I liked some topics more than others. If I didn’t like something, I tended to think of it as a personal failure,” Mouradian said. “I believed that if I just tried harder, I would like the subject matter more. But, in truth, I just like some topics more than others.
To help students find their way, Mouradian recommends that undergraduate students pursue a wide breadth of studies. She also said that graduate students should attend as many talks and lectures as possible and read widely to help get a better sense of what might excite and pique their interest.
Outside of the UW, Mouradian is an editor for PRX Quantum, an open-access journal that is part of the American Physical Society. The journal is expanding the number of experimental papers it features, and quantum experiments are Mouradian’s specialty. She said that she enjoys reading papers from different types of experimental research groups and helping these groups get their work published. In her free time, Mouradian also enjoys hiking, climbing, and being in the great outdoors around Seattle and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
When asked what she liked most about being an educator, Mouradian again brought up her enjoyment of learning and seeing things from different perspectives.
“Teaching is one of the best ways to learn, and it’s fun to hear the questions students have,” Mouradian said. “Their questions show me how to think about things in an entirely different way. So, I find it very rewarding to help students learn and enjoy the process of learning.”
More information about Sara Mouradian and her work as a researcher and educator is on her bio page on the UW ECE website.
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UW ECE Professor Radha Poovendran[/caption]
UW ECE Professor Radha Poovendran has been named the UW lead for a new, multi-university institute, which will develop approaches that leverage artificial intelligence, or AI, to defend against cyberthreats that target the security and privacy of computer networks and their users. Poovendran is the founding director of the Network Security Lab at the UW, and he served as UW ECE chair from January 2015 to December 2019.
Launching on June 1 with support from the National Science Foundation, the AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation, or ACTION Institute, will initiate a revolutionary approach to cybersecurity, in which artificially intelligent security agents cooperate with humans to jointly improve security of complex computer systems over time. These AI security agents will be designed to continuously learn and adapt to cyberattacks and threats to system security, both on their own and in collaboration with human experts.
The ACTION Institute is a $20 million, five-year project, funded by a partnership between the NSF, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, and IBM Corporation. It will be directed by Giovanni Vigna, a computer science professor and cybersecurity expert at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which is the lead university for the Institute.
“AI is used routinely now, for things like malware analysis to identify malicious documents and malicious web pages,” Vigna said in a recent UC Santa Barbara press release. “What we don’t have are entities that are capable of reasoning. This is an opportunity to bring artificial intelligence and security together in a novel way.”
The ACTION Institute’s UW research team includes Poovendran and Sewoong Oh, an associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Poovendran and Oh, in collaboration with other Institute members, will be developing a new framework that models strategic interactions between AI security agents and their cyber adversaries. This novel framework will take into account operation in uncertain or unknown online environments where adequate knowledge about behavior of an adversary will not be available. The UW team will also develop algorithms that train and guide AI security agents in learning how to operate robustly in adversarial environments.
“Basically, we’ll be providing the AI security agents with a powerful mechanism for reasoning about adversarial engagement,” Poovendran said. “And that will enable AI security agents, in cooperation with humans, to successfully defend computer systems that are undergoing what very well might be a complex and strategic cyberattack.”
In addition to the research teams from UC Santa Barbara and the UW, the ACTION Institute includes collaborators from UC Berkeley, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, The University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, Rutgers, Norfolk State University, University of Illinois, and the University of Virginia.
The big picture
The ACTION Institute is one of seven new AI-focused Institutes being launched by the NSF this summer, which represent a $140 million investment. It is part of a broader effort across the federal government to advance a cohesive approach to AI-related opportunities and risks. These new Institutes are part of the larger, NSF-funded AI Institutes research network, which represents close to half a billion dollars in funding and reaches almost every U.S. state.
“The National AI Research Institutes are a critical component of our nation’s AI innovation, infrastructure, technology, education, and partnerships ecosystem,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “These institutes are driving discoveries that will ensure our country is at the forefront of the global AI revolution.”
The ACTION Institute will start its work by conducting research in four focus areas for AI security agents: learning and reasoning that incorporates domain knowledge, human-agent interaction, multi-agent collaboration, and strategic gaming and tactical planning. The researchers will aim to enable AI security agents to improve their domain knowledge over time. This, in turn, will empower the agents to grow increasingly robust and effective in the face of changes in adversaries’ modes of operation. AI agents will be able to compose defense strategies and tactical plans in the presence of uncertainty, collaborate with each other and with humans for mutually complementary teaming, and adapt to unfamiliar and novel attacks.
[caption id="attachment_30922" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
An illustrated overview of the ACTION Institute's integrated AI and cybersecurity research. Illustration provided by the ACTION Institute.[/caption]
Research by the ACTION Institute promises to have an important and far-reaching impact across the nation. Computer systems are increasingly central to national infrastructure in finance, medicine, manufacturing, defense, and other sectors of the economy. This infrastructure is at risk from sophisticated cyber-adversaries backed by powerful nation-states, whose capabilities rapidly evolve, demanding equally rapid responses.
“The ACTION Institute will help us better assess the opportunities and risks of rapidly evolving AI technology and its impact on DHS missions,” said Dimitri Kusnezov, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security. “This group of researchers and their ambition to push the limits of fundamental AI and apply new insights represents a significant investment in cybersecurity defense. These partnerships allow us to collectively remain on the forefront of leading-edge research for AI technologies.”
The Institute will function as a hub for the AI and cybersecurity communities, and its research efforts will be complemented by innovation in education for K–12 through postdoctoral students. Development of new tools for workforce development is part of the Institute’s mission, as is the creation of new opportunities for collaboration among the Institute’s participating organizations and with external industry partners.
“The ACTION Institute is part of a larger, comprehensive network of AI-focused Institutes being put into place by the National Science Foundation,” Poovendran said. “Over the long-term, this work taken in total, will greatly benefit our nation and people from all walks of life. With that in mind, I’m very excited to see what the future holds.”
For more information, read the recent NSF press release, article on the Allen School website, or visit the ACTION Institute website.
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UW ECE is proud to announce alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony.[/caption]
The University of Washington Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering is proud to announce UW ECE alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony. Dr. González is director of Intel Corporation’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Research Office. She also is a leading advocate dedicated to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering education across the nation and around the world. This year’s graduation ceremony will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event will be presided over by UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins.
“We are very excited to have Gaby as our guest speaker for graduation,” Klavins said. “She is a leading executive at Intel, a valuable member of our UW ECE Advisory Board, and her tireless work over decades expanding STEM education quality and access for those from underrepresented groups is well known. Gaby is a truly outstanding UW ECE alum who demonstrates by example the kind of positive social impact an engineering career can have.”
Dr. González’ distinguished career at Intel has spanned over 20 years. In her current role, she oversees global STEM education research, policy, governance, initiatives and thought leadership across the enterprise. Dr. González engages and collaborates with multiple stakeholders across Intel, as well as external partners and collaborators in academia, government, industry, and non-profit agencies to drive and influence inclusive and equitable STEM education outcomes. Prior to this role, she was the deputy director and operations manager of the Intel Foundation, where she led global strategies for STEM outreach and engagement for K–12 students, with particular emphasis on women and girls in STEM.
Earlier in her career, Dr. González served as a program manager for Intel Labs, leading Intel’s strategic corporate relationships and academic programs with top American, European and Latin American research universities. She has held several engineering roles during her time at Intel, including the transfer of the latest microprocessor technologies from development to high-volume manufacturing and management of equipment capacity, labor, and operational productivity. Dr. González began her professional career at Xerox Corporation, where she held various manufacturing, engineering, and management leadership positions.
Dr. González is the former chair of the National Science Foundation STEM Education Advisory Panel, where she served from 2018 to 2022. She currently is on the board of directors for Project Lead the Way and the National Girls Collaborative Project. She is an active member of several professional, social, and cultural communities as a leader and role model, driving impact for underrepresented students and professionals in STEM around the globe. In addition to her bachelor’s degree from UW ECE, she holds a master’s degree in engineering and manufacturing management from Clarkson University, and a doctoral degree in human and social dimensions of science and technology from Arizona State University.
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[post_title] => Professors Michael Taylor and Mo Li contribute to UW effort seeking CHIPS and Science Act funding
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[post_title] => Tech leaders size up what it will take to turn the Pacific Northwest into a ‘Quantum Valley’
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[_finalHTML:protected] => https://www.ece.uw.edu/spotlight/the-breath-between-atoms/The ‘breath’ between atoms — a new building block for quantum technology
A UW research team, led by UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li, has found a way to leverage the “breathing,” or mechanical vibration, between two layers of atoms, engineering a new building block for quantum technologies.
Sara Mouradian — building quantum technologies for computing, communication and sensing
Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian joined UW ECE in March 2022. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications.
Professor Radha Poovendran to be UW lead for NSF-funded ACTION Institute
Poovendran will be the UW lead for a new, multi-university institute, which is developing approaches that leverage AI to defend against cyberthreats that target the security and privacy of computer networks and their users.
Dr. Gabriela A. González from Intel Corporation to speak at UW ECE Graduation
UW ECE is proud to announce alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony.
Professors Michael Taylor and Mo Li contribute to UW effort seeking CHIPS and Science Act funding
UW ECE and Allen School Professor Michael Taylor (left) as well as UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li (right) are participating in UW proposals related to AI, chip design and microelectronics technologies.
Tech leaders size up what it will take to turn the Pacific Northwest into a ‘Quantum Valley’
Kai-Mei Fu, who is the Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, is part of a larger group of experts working to solidify Seattle's stance in the field of quantum computing.
A hybrid platform for quantum computing
[caption id="attachment_31115" align="alignright" width="500"] The UW research team included Adina Ripin (left), lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the physics department, Ruoming Peng (center), co-lead author and a recent UW ECE graduate (Ph.D. ‘22), and senior author Mo Li (right), a professor in UW ECE and the physics department and the UW ECE associate chair for research.[/caption]
This research grew from previous work by the Mo Li Group on a quantum-level quasiparticle called an “exciton.” This quasiparticle is important because information can be encoded into an exciton and then released from it in the form of a photon — a tiny particle of energy considered to be the quantum unit of light. Quantum properties of each photon emitted (such as the photon’s polarization, wavelength and/or emission timing) can function as a quantum bit of information, or “qubit,” for quantum computing and communication. And because this qubit is carried by a photon, it travels at the speed of light.
“The bird’s-eye view of this research is that to feasibly have a quantum network, we need to have ways of reliably creating, operating on, storing and transmitting qubits,” said Adina Ripin, a lead author of the paper, member of the Mo Li Group, and a doctoral student in the physics department. “Photons are a natural choice for transmitting this quantum information because optical fibers enable us to transport photons long distances at high speeds, with low losses of energy or information.”
The research team worked with excitons with the aim of creating a single photon emitter, or “quantum emitter,” which is a critical component for quantum technologies based on light and optics. Prevailing quantum emitters in the field often use defects in atomic lattices (such as those found in pink-colored diamonds) as a source for photon emission; however, scientists and engineers who create a quantum emitter in this manner can be at the mercy of wherever the defects happen to occur naturally in the lattice. By contrast, the UW team wanted to be able to determine exactly where the quantum emitter would be located within its supporting material.
To do this, the team used two extremely thin layers of tungsten and selenium atoms, known as tungsten diselenide, and placed one layer on top of the other. These layers are so thin — each is only one atom thick — that for practical purposes, they are considered two-dimensional.
“Two-dimensional quantum materials such as this are really interesting systems for storing quantum information because the reduced dimensionality of the material leads to many unique quantum states that are extremely stable,” Ripin explained.
The team pressed the two layers of tungsten diselenide onto a substrate, prepared with hundreds of microscopic pillars, each only 200 nanometers wide. The atomic layers draped over these nanopillars, which created a slight strain in the material. The tension at the site of each nanopillar produced what is known as a “strain-induced quantum dot.” It is these quantum dots that isolated excitons within a confined space and allowed the team to create the quantum emitter on the substrate exactly where they desired.
By applying a precise pulse of laser light, the team was able to knock a tungsten diselenide atom’s electron away from the nucleus, which generated an exciton quasiparticle. Each exciton the team produced consisted of a negatively charged electron on one layer of the tungsten diselenide and a positively charged hole where the electron used to be on the other layer. And because opposite charges attract each other, the electron and the hole in each exciton were tightly bonded to each other. After a short moment, as the electron dropped back into the hole it previously occupied, the exciton emitted a single photon encoded with quantum information — producing the quantum emitter the team sought to create.
Phonons as a resource for transmitting quantum information
In the midst of their research, the team discovered that the tungsten diselenide atoms were emitting more than photons and excitons. The atoms were also producing another type of quasiparticle, known as a phonon. Phonons are a product of atomic vibration, which occurs in all matter in a natural process that can be seen as similar to breathing — think of the phonon as the sound of the “breath” between atoms. In this context, the phonons were generated by the vibration between the two atomic layers of the tungsten diselenide, which acted like tiny drumheads vibrating relative to each other. In general, phonons can be thought of as quantum-level sound waves, conceptually similar to photons being quantized light waves.
This was the first time phonons have ever been observed in a single photon emitter in such a two-dimensional atomic system. When the team measured and examined the spectrum of the emitted light, they noticed several intriguing and equally spaced peaks. And thanks to expert analysis from team member Ting Cao, a quantum theorist and an assistant professor in materials science and engineering, they soon discovered that every single photon emitted by an exciton was coupled with one, two, three or more phonons. This is somewhat akin to climbing a quantum energy ladder one rung at a time, and on the spectrum, these energy spikes were represented visually by the equally spaced peaks.
“A phonon is the natural quantum vibration of the tungsten diselenide material, and it has the effect of vertically stretching the exciton electron-hole pair sitting in the two layers,” Li explained. “This has a remarkably strong effect on the optical properties of the photon emitted by the exciton that has never been reported before.”
The team was inspired by their discovery to generate ideas for harnessing the phonons for quantum technology. Through applying electrical voltage, they found that they could vary the interaction energy of the associated phonons and emitted photons. These variations were measurable and controllable in ways relevant to encoding quantum information into a single photon emission. And this was all accomplished in one integrated system — a device that involved only a small number of atoms.
“I find it fascinating that we were able to observe a new kind of hybrid quantum platform,” said Ruoming Peng, who was also a lead author of the paper and graduated with his doctoral degree from UW ECE in 2022. “By studying the way phonons interact with quantum emitters, we discovered a whole new realm of possibilities for controlling and manipulating quantum states. This could lead to even more exciting discoveries in the future.” Peng is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and plans to continue research in similar quantum systems.
Next steps for the research team will include building a waveguide — fibers on a chip that catch single photon emissions and direct them where they need to go — and scaling up the system. Instead of controlling only one quantum emitter at a time, the team wants to be able to control multiple emitters and their associated phonon states. This will enable the quantum emitters to “talk” to each other, building a solid base for quantum circuitry.
“Our overarching goal is to create an integrated system with quantum emitters that can use single photons running through optical circuits and the newly discovered phonons to do quantum computing and quantum sensing,” Li said. “This advance certainly will contribute to that effort, and it helps to further develop quantum computing, which, in the future, will have many applications.”
Adina Ripin, Ruoming Peng, Xiaowei Zhang, Srivatsa Chakravarthi, Minhao He, Xiaodong Xu, Kai-Mei Fu, Ting Cao, and Mo Li are authors of “Tunable phononic coupling in excitonic quantum emitters,” which is the research paper described in this article. Learn more at the Mo Li Group website, or contact Mo Li for more information. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation through the Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C) at the UW. Adina Ripin is also supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
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[post_content] => Article by Wayne Gillam, photos by Ryan Hoover | UW ECE News
[caption id="attachment_31043" align="alignright" width="600"] UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian joined the Department in March 2022. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications.[/caption]
UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian says she enjoys learning new things and looking at problems from different points of view. That’s probably a good thing, because as a researcher and educator who specializes in quantum information science and technology, or QIST, she is often presented with new and multifaceted challenges.
QIST is an emerging field that blends electrical and computer engineering with the physics of quantum mechanics, and it provides researchers like Mouradian with tantalizing opportunities to achieve far-reaching, positive impact. For example, in the future, quantum computers are widely expected to outpace today’s fastest supercomputers on certain problems in cryptography, molecular simulation, and possibly other areas as well. But there are still many difficult challenges ahead to reach this vision, including managing errors in sensitive quantum systems caused by interactions with the environment, designing architectures that enable quantum computers at a scale needed for practical tasks, and developing high-quality quantum hardware.
According to Mouradian, QIST needs people from several different disciplines working together to solve the wide array of problems involved with making quantum technologies for future applications. But this is a challenge she appears to relish.
“What I like most about quantum information processing, and my research in general, is that it brings together so many different fields,” Mouradian said. “It involves optics, electronics, nanofabrication and atomic physics. There’s a lot of different topics that one can work on within the large umbrella of QIST.”
Mouradian joined UW ECE in March 2022 as part of a UW College of Engineering cluster hiring initiative in QIST, which also included faculty hires in mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, and computer science and engineering. Since then, she has established the Scalable Quantum Research Lab at the UW, which is building quantum technologies for real-world applications in computing, communication and sensing. Mouradian’s lab is in the NanoES building on campus, and it involves a sizable number of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral associate.
“Everything around us is quantum, because everything is made up of atoms, but we usually see only the ensemble, classical properties,” Mouradian said. “In my lab, we’re building technologies that can control individual atoms and engineer interactions at the atomic level. This will help to increase our control over the quantum world.”
Mouradian is also making her mark as an educator at UW ECE, teaching a mix of undergraduate and graduate students and leading hands-on courses such as the Quantum Information Practicum, which is part of the recently established UW Graduate Certificate in Quantum Information Science and Engineering.
“Since joining our Department, Sara has hit the ground running,” UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins said. “She has already proven to be an invaluable member of UW ECE and our University community. I’m excited to see what she will accomplish in the future in regard to her research and fostering new opportunities for our students.”
Finding a collaborative environment for quantum research
Mouradian became interested in quantum technologies while pursuing her undergraduate degree at MIT and began her work in quantum computing while completing a senior research project. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from MIT in 2010, 2012, and 2018, respectively. Before joining UW ECE, she worked as an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.
While at UC Berkeley, Mouradian became interested in melding the classical electrical engineering she studied while pursuing her doctoral degree with the more physics-focused work she was doing in her postdoctoral fellowship. She said she liked the fact that the UW is a public university and saw UW ECE as being open to supporting research that was on the edges of traditional electrical engineering — where QIST exists. She also noted the network of support for quantum research across the UW.
“There was already such a strong recognition that quantum was really important here, through organizations such as QuantumX,” Mouradian said. “So, it felt to me like I was joining a community that was already up and running.”
Everything around us is quantum, because everything is made up of atoms, but we usually see only the ensemble, classical properties. In my lab, we’re building technologies that can control individual atoms and engineer interactions at the atomic level. This will help to increase our control over the quantum world. — UW ECE Assistant Professor Sara Mouradian
At the UW, Mouradian’s lab focuses on engineering challenges involved in using trapped calcium ions for quantum information processing. Mouradian sees using trapped ions as one of the best options available for significantly scaling up quantum systems to the level needed for practical applications. These ions are stable and capable of holding and transmitting quantum bits of information, or “qubits,” which form the basis for quantum computing.
“Every calcium ion qubit is exactly the same,” Mouradian said. “As an electrical engineer, that’s nice, because it means that the problems for trapped ions and quantum computing are mostly classical engineering problems.”
Since joining the UW, Mouradian has found no shortage of collaborators to work on those classical engineering problems with her. She has consulted with professors Mo Li and Arka Majumdar about how to use optical systems they are developing to help control trapped ions. She frequently discusses quantum theory and how it applies to her lab experiments with fellow QIST cluster hire Rahul Trivedi. And professor Scott Hauck and his students have been assisting Mouradian’s lab with designing electronic controls for quantum systems. She also has been working with Max Parsons, director of the Quantum Technologies Training and Testbed (QT3) Lab to build more opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research.
Educating the next-generation quantum workforce
[caption id="attachment_31049" align="alignright" width="450"] Outside of the UW, Mouradian is an editor for PRX Quantum, an open-access journal that is part of the American Physical Society.[/caption]
Mouradian has been enhancing academic pathways for students through avenues such as the QT3 Lab, the Quantum Information Practicum, and the ENGINE Showcase, where students from the Practicum will be presenting their work this year. She noted that determining academic and career goals is not necessarily an easy task for students. And in fact, when she herself was a student at MIT, it wasn’t always clear to her which academic direction she should pursue.
“It took me a while to acknowledge that I liked some topics more than others. If I didn’t like something, I tended to think of it as a personal failure,” Mouradian said. “I believed that if I just tried harder, I would like the subject matter more. But, in truth, I just like some topics more than others.
To help students find their way, Mouradian recommends that undergraduate students pursue a wide breadth of studies. She also said that graduate students should attend as many talks and lectures as possible and read widely to help get a better sense of what might excite and pique their interest.
Outside of the UW, Mouradian is an editor for PRX Quantum, an open-access journal that is part of the American Physical Society. The journal is expanding the number of experimental papers it features, and quantum experiments are Mouradian’s specialty. She said that she enjoys reading papers from different types of experimental research groups and helping these groups get their work published. In her free time, Mouradian also enjoys hiking, climbing, and being in the great outdoors around Seattle and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
When asked what she liked most about being an educator, Mouradian again brought up her enjoyment of learning and seeing things from different perspectives.
“Teaching is one of the best ways to learn, and it’s fun to hear the questions students have,” Mouradian said. “Their questions show me how to think about things in an entirely different way. So, I find it very rewarding to help students learn and enjoy the process of learning.”
More information about Sara Mouradian and her work as a researcher and educator is on her bio page on the UW ECE website.
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[post_content] => [caption id="attachment_30918" align="alignright" width="550"] UW ECE Professor Radha Poovendran[/caption]
UW ECE Professor Radha Poovendran has been named the UW lead for a new, multi-university institute, which will develop approaches that leverage artificial intelligence, or AI, to defend against cyberthreats that target the security and privacy of computer networks and their users. Poovendran is the founding director of the Network Security Lab at the UW, and he served as UW ECE chair from January 2015 to December 2019.
Launching on June 1 with support from the National Science Foundation, the AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation, or ACTION Institute, will initiate a revolutionary approach to cybersecurity, in which artificially intelligent security agents cooperate with humans to jointly improve security of complex computer systems over time. These AI security agents will be designed to continuously learn and adapt to cyberattacks and threats to system security, both on their own and in collaboration with human experts.
The ACTION Institute is a $20 million, five-year project, funded by a partnership between the NSF, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, and IBM Corporation. It will be directed by Giovanni Vigna, a computer science professor and cybersecurity expert at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which is the lead university for the Institute.
“AI is used routinely now, for things like malware analysis to identify malicious documents and malicious web pages,” Vigna said in a recent UC Santa Barbara press release. “What we don’t have are entities that are capable of reasoning. This is an opportunity to bring artificial intelligence and security together in a novel way.”
The ACTION Institute’s UW research team includes Poovendran and Sewoong Oh, an associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Poovendran and Oh, in collaboration with other Institute members, will be developing a new framework that models strategic interactions between AI security agents and their cyber adversaries. This novel framework will take into account operation in uncertain or unknown online environments where adequate knowledge about behavior of an adversary will not be available. The UW team will also develop algorithms that train and guide AI security agents in learning how to operate robustly in adversarial environments.
“Basically, we’ll be providing the AI security agents with a powerful mechanism for reasoning about adversarial engagement,” Poovendran said. “And that will enable AI security agents, in cooperation with humans, to successfully defend computer systems that are undergoing what very well might be a complex and strategic cyberattack.”
In addition to the research teams from UC Santa Barbara and the UW, the ACTION Institute includes collaborators from UC Berkeley, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, The University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, Rutgers, Norfolk State University, University of Illinois, and the University of Virginia.
The big picture
The ACTION Institute is one of seven new AI-focused Institutes being launched by the NSF this summer, which represent a $140 million investment. It is part of a broader effort across the federal government to advance a cohesive approach to AI-related opportunities and risks. These new Institutes are part of the larger, NSF-funded AI Institutes research network, which represents close to half a billion dollars in funding and reaches almost every U.S. state.
“The National AI Research Institutes are a critical component of our nation’s AI innovation, infrastructure, technology, education, and partnerships ecosystem,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “These institutes are driving discoveries that will ensure our country is at the forefront of the global AI revolution.”
The ACTION Institute will start its work by conducting research in four focus areas for AI security agents: learning and reasoning that incorporates domain knowledge, human-agent interaction, multi-agent collaboration, and strategic gaming and tactical planning. The researchers will aim to enable AI security agents to improve their domain knowledge over time. This, in turn, will empower the agents to grow increasingly robust and effective in the face of changes in adversaries’ modes of operation. AI agents will be able to compose defense strategies and tactical plans in the presence of uncertainty, collaborate with each other and with humans for mutually complementary teaming, and adapt to unfamiliar and novel attacks.
[caption id="attachment_30922" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] An illustrated overview of the ACTION Institute's integrated AI and cybersecurity research. Illustration provided by the ACTION Institute.[/caption]
Research by the ACTION Institute promises to have an important and far-reaching impact across the nation. Computer systems are increasingly central to national infrastructure in finance, medicine, manufacturing, defense, and other sectors of the economy. This infrastructure is at risk from sophisticated cyber-adversaries backed by powerful nation-states, whose capabilities rapidly evolve, demanding equally rapid responses.
“The ACTION Institute will help us better assess the opportunities and risks of rapidly evolving AI technology and its impact on DHS missions,” said Dimitri Kusnezov, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security. “This group of researchers and their ambition to push the limits of fundamental AI and apply new insights represents a significant investment in cybersecurity defense. These partnerships allow us to collectively remain on the forefront of leading-edge research for AI technologies.”
The Institute will function as a hub for the AI and cybersecurity communities, and its research efforts will be complemented by innovation in education for K–12 through postdoctoral students. Development of new tools for workforce development is part of the Institute’s mission, as is the creation of new opportunities for collaboration among the Institute’s participating organizations and with external industry partners.
“The ACTION Institute is part of a larger, comprehensive network of AI-focused Institutes being put into place by the National Science Foundation,” Poovendran said. “Over the long-term, this work taken in total, will greatly benefit our nation and people from all walks of life. With that in mind, I’m very excited to see what the future holds.”
For more information, read the recent NSF press release, article on the Allen School website, or visit the ACTION Institute website.
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[post_content] => [caption id="attachment_30866" align="alignright" width="450"] UW ECE is proud to announce alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony.[/caption]
The University of Washington Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering is proud to announce UW ECE alumna Dr. Gabriela A. González (BSEE ‘92) as honored guest speaker for the Department’s 2023 graduation ceremony. Dr. González is director of Intel Corporation’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Research Office. She also is a leading advocate dedicated to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering education across the nation and around the world. This year’s graduation ceremony will take place in the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Wednesday, June 7, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event will be presided over by UW ECE Professor and Chair Eric Klavins.
“We are very excited to have Gaby as our guest speaker for graduation,” Klavins said. “She is a leading executive at Intel, a valuable member of our UW ECE Advisory Board, and her tireless work over decades expanding STEM education quality and access for those from underrepresented groups is well known. Gaby is a truly outstanding UW ECE alum who demonstrates by example the kind of positive social impact an engineering career can have.”
Dr. González’ distinguished career at Intel has spanned over 20 years. In her current role, she oversees global STEM education research, policy, governance, initiatives and thought leadership across the enterprise. Dr. González engages and collaborates with multiple stakeholders across Intel, as well as external partners and collaborators in academia, government, industry, and non-profit agencies to drive and influence inclusive and equitable STEM education outcomes. Prior to this role, she was the deputy director and operations manager of the Intel Foundation, where she led global strategies for STEM outreach and engagement for K–12 students, with particular emphasis on women and girls in STEM.
Earlier in her career, Dr. González served as a program manager for Intel Labs, leading Intel’s strategic corporate relationships and academic programs with top American, European and Latin American research universities. She has held several engineering roles during her time at Intel, including the transfer of the latest microprocessor technologies from development to high-volume manufacturing and management of equipment capacity, labor, and operational productivity. Dr. González began her professional career at Xerox Corporation, where she held various manufacturing, engineering, and management leadership positions.
Dr. González is the former chair of the National Science Foundation STEM Education Advisory Panel, where she served from 2018 to 2022. She currently is on the board of directors for Project Lead the Way and the National Girls Collaborative Project. She is an active member of several professional, social, and cultural communities as a leader and role model, driving impact for underrepresented students and professionals in STEM around the globe. In addition to her bachelor’s degree from UW ECE, she holds a master’s degree in engineering and manufacturing management from Clarkson University, and a doctoral degree in human and social dimensions of science and technology from Arizona State University.
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[post_title] => Tech leaders size up what it will take to turn the Pacific Northwest into a ‘Quantum Valley’
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[post_content] => By Wayne Gillam | UW ECE News
[caption id="attachment_31109" align="alignright" width="500"] An illustration of an array of single-photon emitters (also known as “quantum emitters”) developed by the UW research team. These emitters are a critical component for quantum technologies based on light and optics. In the illustration, the blue and gold dots represent two layers of tungsten and selenium atoms, and each raised bump is the location of what is called a “strain-induced quantum dot.” The research team used these quantum dots to create the quantum emitters, which can be selectively activated to generate photons and mechanical vibrations between the atomic layers, which in turn can be used to encode and transmit quantum information. The four red triangles represent light emitted from four quantum emitters — each generating one photon at the same energy level as the others. Illustration provided by Ruoming Peng[/caption]
A UW research team, led by UW ECE and Physics Professor Mo Li, has found a way to leverage the “breathing,” or mechanical vibration, between two layers of atoms, engineering a new building block for quantum technologies.
The act of breathing is primal. People breathe, animals breathe, and in a certain sense, plants and even non-living things such as oceans and the Earth itself demonstrate their own types of respiration processes. Big and small, natural systems that breathe, or exhibit behavior strikingly similar to breathing, can be found throughout the world. So, with that in mind, it should be no surprise that this sort of “breathing” phenomena also takes place on the atomic level.
Recently, a University of Washington research team discovered that they could detect atomic “breathing,” that is, the mechanical vibration between two layers of atoms, by observing the type of light those atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser. The group’s discovery will allow them to use the sound of this atomic “breath” to encode and transmit quantum information. And because of that, a device developed by the team could serve as a new type of building block for quantum technologies, which are widely anticipated to have many future applications in fields such as computing, communications, and sensor development.
The cross-departmental team was led by Mo Li, who is a professor and the associate chair for research in the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (UW ECE). Li holds a joint appointment with the physics department, is a member of the steering committee for QuantumX, and is a faculty member of the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. He noted that this research aimed to provide scientists and engineers with a new resource for developing quantum computing circuitry.
“This is a new, atomic-scale platform, using what the scientific community calls ‘optomechanics,’ in which light and mechanical motions are intrinsically coupled together,” Li said. “It provides a new type of involved quantum effect that can be utilized to control single photons running through integrated optical circuits for many applications.”
Li and his colleagues described this quantum platform in detail in a paper recently published in Nature Nanotechnology. The interdisciplinary UW research team included graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and professors from electrical and computer engineering, physics, and materials science and engineering.
A hybrid platform for quantum computing
[caption id="attachment_31115" align="alignright" width="500"] The UW research team included Adina Ripin (left), lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the physics department, Ruoming Peng (center), co-lead author and a recent UW ECE graduate (Ph.D. ‘22), and senior author Mo Li (right), a professor in UW ECE and the physics department and the UW ECE associate chair for research.[/caption]
This research grew from previous work by the Mo Li Group on a quantum-level quasiparticle called an “exciton.” This quasiparticle is important because information can be encoded into an exciton and then released from it in the form of a photon — a tiny particle of energy considered to be the quantum unit of light. Quantum properties of each photon emitted (such as the photon’s polarization, wavelength and/or emission timing) can function as a quantum bit of information, or “qubit,” for quantum computing and communication. And because this qubit is carried by a photon, it travels at the speed of light.
“The bird’s-eye view of this research is that to feasibly have a quantum network, we need to have ways of reliably creating, operating on, storing and transmitting qubits,” said Adina Ripin, a lead author of the paper, member of the Mo Li Group, and a doctoral student in the physics department. “Photons are a natural choice for transmitting this quantum information because optical fibers enable us to transport photons long distances at high speeds, with low losses of energy or information.”
The research team worked with excitons with the aim of creating a single photon emitter, or “quantum emitter,” which is a critical component for quantum technologies based on light and optics. Prevailing quantum emitters in the field often use defects in atomic lattices (such as those found in pink-colored diamonds) as a source for photon emission; however, scientists and engineers who create a quantum emitter in this manner can be at the mercy of wherever the defects happen to occur naturally in the lattice. By contrast, the UW team wanted to be able to determine exactly where the quantum emitter would be located within its supporting material.
To do this, the team used two extremely thin layers of tungsten and selenium atoms, known as tungsten diselenide, and placed one layer on top of the other. These layers are so thin — each is only one atom thick — that for practical purposes, they are considered two-dimensional.
“Two-dimensional quantum materials such as this are really interesting systems for storing quantum information because the reduced dimensionality of the material leads to many unique quantum states that are extremely stable,” Ripin explained.
The team pressed the two layers of tungsten diselenide onto a substrate, prepared with hundreds of microscopic pillars, each only 200 nanometers wide. The atomic layers draped over these nanopillars, which created a slight strain in the material. The tension at the site of each nanopillar produced what is known as a “strain-induced quantum dot.” It is these quantum dots that isolated excitons within a confined space and allowed the team to create the quantum emitter on the substrate exactly where they desired.
By applying a precise pulse of laser light, the team was able to knock a tungsten diselenide atom’s electron away from the nucleus, which generated an exciton quasiparticle. Each exciton the team produced consisted of a negatively charged electron on one layer of the tungsten diselenide and a positively charged hole where the electron used to be on the other layer. And because opposite charges attract each other, the electron and the hole in each exciton were tightly bonded to each other. After a short moment, as the electron dropped back into the hole it previously occupied, the exciton emitted a single photon encoded with quantum information — producing the quantum emitter the team sought to create.
Phonons as a resource for transmitting quantum information
In the midst of their research, the team discovered that the tungsten diselenide atoms were emitting more than photons and excitons. The atoms were also producing another type of quasiparticle, known as a phonon. Phonons are a product of atomic vibration, which occurs in all matter in a natural process that can be seen as similar to breathing — think of the phonon as the sound of the “breath” between atoms. In this context, the phonons were generated by the vibration between the two atomic layers of the tungsten diselenide, which acted like tiny drumheads vibrating relative to each other. In general, phonons can be thought of as quantum-level sound waves, conceptually similar to photons being quantized light waves.
This was the first time phonons have ever been observed in a single photon emitter in such a two-dimensional atomic system. When the team measured and examined the spectrum of the emitted light, they noticed several intriguing and equally spaced peaks. And thanks to expert analysis from team member Ting Cao, a quantum theorist and an assistant professor in materials science and engineering, they soon discovered that every single photon emitted by an exciton was coupled with one, two, three or more phonons. This is somewhat akin to climbing a quantum energy ladder one rung at a time, and on the spectrum, these energy spikes were represented visually by the equally spaced peaks.
“A phonon is the natural quantum vibration of the tungsten diselenide material, and it has the effect of vertically stretching the exciton electron-hole pair sitting in the two layers,” Li explained. “This has a remarkably strong effect on the optical properties of the photon emitted by the exciton that has never been reported before.”
The team was inspired by their discovery to generate ideas for harnessing the phonons for quantum technology. Through applying electrical voltage, they found that they could vary the interaction energy of the associated phonons and emitted photons. These variations were measurable and controllable in ways relevant to encoding quantum information into a single photon emission. And this was all accomplished in one integrated system — a device that involved only a small number of atoms.
“I find it fascinating that we were able to observe a new kind of hybrid quantum platform,” said Ruoming Peng, who was also a lead author of the paper and graduated with his doctoral degree from UW ECE in 2022. “By studying the way phonons interact with quantum emitters, we discovered a whole new realm of possibilities for controlling and manipulating quantum states. This could lead to even more exciting discoveries in the future.” Peng is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and plans to continue research in similar quantum systems.
Next steps for the research team will include building a waveguide — fibers on a chip that catch single photon emissions and direct them where they need to go — and scaling up the system. Instead of controlling only one quantum emitter at a time, the team wants to be able to control multiple emitters and their associated phonon states. This will enable the quantum emitters to “talk” to each other, building a solid base for quantum circuitry.
“Our overarching goal is to create an integrated system with quantum emitters that can use single photons running through optical circuits and the newly discovered phonons to do quantum computing and quantum sensing,” Li said. “This advance certainly will contribute to that effort, and it helps to further develop quantum computing, which, in the future, will have many applications.”
Adina Ripin, Ruoming Peng, Xiaowei Zhang, Srivatsa Chakravarthi, Minhao He, Xiaodong Xu, Kai-Mei Fu, Ting Cao, and Mo Li are authors of “Tunable phononic coupling in excitonic quantum emitters,” which is the research paper described in this article. Learn more at the Mo Li Group website, or contact Mo Li for more information. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation through the Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C) at the UW. Adina Ripin is also supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
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