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R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
On-chip cavity quantum phonodynamics
Date: Thursday, November 15th
Time: 10:00 am
Place: 5310 Chamberlin
Speaker: Charles Tahan, Laboratory for Physical Science
Abstract: The progression of technology relies in part on the identification and control of components, such as confined electrons or photons, from which systems of greater complexity are built. Once a curiosity, it now looks like nanomechanical systems can also have good, robust properties for classical and quantum devices. I will discuss our recent work on controlling phonons at the quantum level. We have introduced a way to engineer a sound-based analogue of cavity-QED allowing for composite quantum objects called phonitons to be formed [1]. We show how this system can be used to probe phonon-qubit (sound-matter) interactions and properties, form complex many-body systems, and be practically realized. Recently, we have shown [2] how an on-chip version of this system can be constructed allowing integration with other phononic components such as photon-phonon translators.

[1] Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 235502 (2011)
[2] http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1776

Charles Tahan received B.S. degrees in physics and computer science with highest honors from the College of William and Mary in 2000 and a Ph.D. in condensed matter theory from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, where his work focused on silicon quantum computing. From 2005-2007 he was a National Science Foundation Distinguished International Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK, with visiting research positions at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Tokyo, Japan. During this time he co-invented the field of "solid light" with a proposal for strongly-correlated polariton systems. From 2007-2009 he was a technical consultant in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), helping to create the Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology (QuEST) program among others. Presently, he is a program manager in the quantum computing group at the Laboratory for Physical Sciences where he also has a research group in quantum information and device theory. His current research interests focus on solid-state quantum computing, nano/optomechanics, fundamental open problems in quantum information processing, and solid-state devices that exhibit enhanced functionality due to their quantum behavior.
Host: Friesen
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