Technique - (35) Microwave circuit QED

Type: Experimental

Description: Coupling of qubits or spins to microwave resonators for readout and quantum control.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Superconducting Quantum Circuits Laboratory @ USyd
Summary:

Croot returned from Princeton to found Sydney's Superconducting Quantum Circuits Laboratory. The programme uses superconducting circuits both as quantum processors and as extremely sensitive probes: coupling microwave resonators and qubits to other degrees of freedom (mechanical modes, semiconductor structures, spins) to build hybrid systems, and developing the quantum-limited amplification chain that makes single-microwave-photon detection possible. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β€” DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β€” superconducting circuits are the principal competitor technology for detecting the weak microwave signals that NV ensembles read magnetically; a quantum-limited or squeezed microwave amplifier is what lets an inductively-detected spin ensemble reach β€” and beat β€” the pT/sqrt(Hz) regime. Newly established, well-equipped lab; high autonomy for a postdoc and active recruitment as the lab builds out.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications | Dzurak Silicon Quantum Devices Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Dzurak leads the silicon CMOS quantum dot spin qubit programme at UNSW and co-founded Diraq, the company commercialising it. The group demonstrated the first silicon MOS qubit, two-qubit logic in silicon, and has pushed toward fidelities above the fault-tolerance threshold in industrially-manufactured CMOS devices, including work on gate-stack engineering for low charge noise and on single-electron-transistor charge sensing for readout. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β€” DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β€” the relevant transferable asset is the readout: the single-electron-transistor and gate-based dispersive sensors this group builds are among the most sensitive electrometers in existence, the charge-domain analogue of pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometry. Caveat against the stated preference: the programme is now heavily fabrication- and yield-driven and closely tied to a commercial roadmap, so a sensing-focused postdoc would be somewhat off the group's main axis.

Techniques:
Department(s)/lab(s): Electrical and Computer Engineering | Fang Lab @ UIUC
Summary:

Works on quantum photonics and microwave-to-optical quantum transduction, collaborating on interconnects to link superconducting quantum processors via optical quantum networks.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Photonics Group | Biophotonics Group – Photonics Department (French) @ Imperial
Summary:

French is Professor and former Head of the Photonics Group (2001–2013). His group at Imperial (with Dunsby and Neil) develops multidimensional fluorescence imaging technology for life sciences and clinical applications. Research portfolio: (1) FLIM β€” wide-field time-gated FLIM using gated optical intensifiers and TCSPC for single-cell FRET-based biosensing of protein-protein interactions, cell signalling (kinase activity), and drug-target engagement in multi-well plates; (2) Super-resolved microscopy β€” STED, easySTORM (lower-cost STORM), and SIM+FLIM for mapping molecular function to biological nanostructure below the diffraction limit; (3) FLIM endoscopy β€” flexible wide-field FLIM endoscopes for label-free cancer diagnostics (autofluorescence lifetime) and osteoarthritis cartilage; (4) Open-source imaging β€” automated multiwell plate FLIM reader for high-content drug screening. Satellite lab at Francis Crick Institute.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Quantum Electronic Devices Group (Hamilton) @ UNSW
Summary:

Hamilton heads the Quantum Electronic Devices group and is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Future Low Energy Electronics (FLEET). The group works on hole-based quantum devices in GaAs and germanium, where strong spin-orbit coupling allows all-electrical spin control, and on topological materials and one-dimensional transport. The measurements are millikelvin transport and noise spectroscopy of very small signals in mesoscopic devices. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β€” DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β€” the link is indirect β€” this is charge/spin transport rather than magnetometry β€” but the group's expertise in low-noise cryogenic measurement and in spin-orbit-mediated electrical spin control is directly transferable to electrically-detected spin sensing, which is the main alternative to the optical readout that limits pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensembles. Borderline inclusion; kept under the inclusive rubric.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Higginbotham Lab @ UChicago
Summary:

Explores boundary between condensed-matter physics and quantum sensing using superconductor-semiconductor circuits. Directions: (1) gate-tunable superconductor-semiconductor parametric amplifier for quantum-limited readout (PRA 2023); (2) room-temperature capacitive strong coupling to mechanical motion for electromechanical sensing (Nano Letters 2025); (3) quantum criticality in Josephson junction arrays; (4) synthetic Hamiltonians in hybrid SC-semi devices probing hidden material behavior. IST Austria β†’ Microsoft β†’ JILA β†’ UChicago Nov 2023.

Department(s)/lab(s): PME | Jiang Group @ UChicago
Summary:

Quantum information theorist with strong focus on quantum sensing. Directions: (1) error-correction-enhanced quantum sensing protocols surpassing Heisenberg limit; (2) quantum transduction theory for microwave-optical interfaces; (3) global-scale quantum network architecture; (4) room-temperature NV-based nanoscale magnetometry theory; (5) sub-wavelength quantum imaging protocols. Works closely with experimental quantum sensing groups at UChicago and beyond.

Tags:
Department(s)/lab(s): Physics and Astronomy | QUEST Group (Kamal Lab) @ Northwestern
Summary:

Kamal directs the QUEST (QUantum Engineering Science and Technology) group, developing theory for quantum-limited readout of superconducting circuits: nonreciprocal parametric (Josephson-junction) amplifiers, left-handed-metamaterial traveling-wave amplifiers, and autonomous entanglement stabilization/error-correction protocols. Her work sets the fundamental noise limits that superconducting-qubit-based quantum sensors and quantum computers can approach, in close collaboration with experimental groups at NIST Boulder and elsewhere. The group is actively recruiting postdoctoral scholars.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Condensed Matter Physics Sub-department) | Quantum Magnonics Group @ Oxford
Summary:

Karenowska leads the Quantum Magnonics group, which develops low-temperature microwave magnonic circuits to probe magnon physics at the quantum level. Core experiments are conducted at millikelvin temperatures in a dilution refrigerator. Research foci include: (1) propagating magnon dynamics in YIG waveguides at mK temperatures β€” measuring spin-wave pulse propagation and characterising the low-temperature ferromagnetic resonance frequency shift; (2) magnon-phonon (phonon-to-magnon) interconversion via magnetoelastic coupling and symmetry breaking in YIG; (3) spin-cat state generation in ferromagnetic insulators β€” theoretical and experimental work toward macroscopic quantum superposition states of magnons; and (4) magnon spintronics β€” spin-charge interconversion in YIG/metal heterostructures. These systems are relevant for microwave quantum information processing and quantum-limited magnetic-frequency-band sensing.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Institute of Physics (IPHYS) | Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (K-Lab) @ EPFL
Summary:

Kippenberg leads the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (K-Lab) at EPFL, pioneer of chip-scale microresonator frequency combs and cavity optomechanics. Research directions: (1) Soliton microcombs β€” dissipative Kerr solitons in Si3N4 microresonators for massively parallel coherent optical communications, precision ranging/LiDAR (Science 2018, Nature 2017); dual-chirped microcomb parallel ranging at megapixel rates; (2) Room-temperature quantum optomechanics β€” phononic-crystal-patterned Si3N4 membrane-in-the-middle cavity reduces frequency noise 700Γ—, observing quantum backaction at room temperature (Nature 2024); (3) Superconducting circuit optomechanics β€” topological lattices, electromechanical sensing (Nature 2022); (4) Free-electron–photon interactions in microresonators. Spin-off companies and strong industry ties. Over 85,000 citations, h-index ~80.