Ligand-Modified Vanadium (III) as an Optically Addressable Spin-Bearing Molecular System

Ligand-Modified Vanadium (III) as an Optically Addressable Spin-Bearing Molecular System

Corrie Barnes, 3rd-Year, Molecular Engineering (Quantum)

2024 URS

David Awschalom, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering; Marquis McMillan, Graduate Student, Awschalom Group

Optically addressable spin-bearing molecular systems are promising qubit candidates due to the ability to build the optical and spin properties via a bottom-up approach using synthetic chemistry. Notably, molecular Vanadium (III) has well-defined ligand groups that enable an effective shift in the Zero-Phonon Line (ZPL) to almost 200 nm into the C-band, demonstrating significant tuning capabilities. In this work, we aim to investigate the optical lifetime (T1) of ligand-modified molecular Vanadium (III) complexes. We realize the optical lifetime by measuring the photo-luminescence of our samples at the ZPL using pulsed off-resonant excitation. Our initialization and readout pulse sequences were constructed using the Quantum Machines OPX1, a quantum control system with “processing and feedback on quantum coherence timescale[s]” (Quantum Machines, n.d.). The OPX1’s well-defined timescale, on the order of nanoseconds, eliminates device timing limitations when measuring the T1 of our sample. Through our findings, we aim to develop an understanding of the relationship between optical lifetime and the addition or subtraction of ligand groups for different Vanadium (III) complexes. 

Digital Abstract