During the overall pursuit of stable and appli­ca­tion-ready quantum comput­ing, this project does basic research on the funda­men­tal build­ing blocks of quantum comput­ers, the qbits. We are using Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) to inves­ti­gate individ­ual atoms and molecules on surfaces in their poten­tial role as spin qbits. Specif­i­cally, this project inves­ti­gates how the coher­ence, an impor­tant quality metric for qbits, is affected by the environment.

What consti­tutes a good qbit, the funda­men­tal build­ing block of quantum comput­ers? And what happens when you make them micro­scop­i­cally small? These are questions our project is trying to answer.

We are inves­ti­gat­ing atomic-scale spin qbits made up of individ­ual magnetic atoms or molecules.To be able to do quantum physics at this length scale, we use Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) at ultra low temper­a­tures (30 mK). Using Scanning Tunnel­ing Microscopy (STM), the control of this kind of qbit has already been estab­lished, but is limited by the large number of electrons in the environ­ment. These electrons in the conduc­tive sample and tip required for STM are limit­ing the life- and coher­ence time of qbits.

That is where my PhD project comes in: What if we could also control these spin qbits using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) which does not need conduc­tive samples to operate? With this aim in mind, I am setting up and devel­op­ing an quantum platform for atomic-scale spin qbits which I want to compare to those already measured using STM.