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  • Newton: Mimicking prions for self-replicating machinesMay 14, 2025

    Our paper on mechanically modeling prions is featured on Newton.

  • EurekAlert!: New quantum sensing technology reveals sub-atomic signalsJanuary 24, 2025

    Our paper on nuclear quadrupolar resonance spectroscopy is featured on EurekAlert!

  • Congratulations, Mathieu!October 16, 2024

    Congratulations to Mathieu on defending his PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Sarah!June 24, 2024

    Congratulations to Sarah on defending her PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Becca!June 14, 2024

    Congratulations to Becca on defending her PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Sarah!September 14, 2023

    Sarah has won the Haller Prize, awarded to the best graduate student at the 32nd International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors. “The Haller Prize is named after Eugene E. Haller who was a major figure in the semiconductor community and an inspiring mentor for students.” (http://icds2023.org/prizes)

  • Welcome, Jeiko!August 30, 2023

    Jeiko Pujols has joined our group as a first-year PhD student in the ESE department.

  • Congratulations, Henry!June 28, 2023

    Congratulations to Henry on defending his PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Alex!May 17, 2023

    Congratulations to Alex on defending his PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Raj!July 13, 2022

    Congratulations to Raj on defending his PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Yung!May 18, 2022

    Congratulations to Yung on defending their PhD thesis!

  • Congratulations, Alex!May 21, 2020

    Alex Breitweiser is awarded an IBM PhD Fellowship. 

  • Congratulations, Jordan!April 21, 2020

    Incoming PhD student Jordan Gusdorff is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

  • Congratulations, Abby!April 20, 2020

    Abigail Poteshman is awarded the William E. Stephens Prize from the Penn. Dept. of Physics & Astronomy. 

  • Our paper on real-time control is selected as an Editor’s suggestion in Phys. Rev. AppliedFebruary 21, 2020
    Real-Time Charge Initialization of Diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Enhanced Spin Readout

    Hopper, D A; Lauigan, J D; Huang, T -Y; Bassett, L C

    Real-Time Charge Initialization of Diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Enhanced Spin Readout Journal Article

    In: Phys. Rev. Applied, vol. 13, pp. 024016, 2020.

    Abstract | Links | BibTeX

    @article{Hopper2019,
    title = {Real-Time Charge Initialization of Diamond Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers for Enhanced Spin Readout},
    author = {D A Hopper and J D Lauigan and T -Y Huang and L C Bassett},
    url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.08741
    https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.13.024016
    https://medium.com/penn-engineering/penn-engineers-ensure-quantum-experiments-get-off-to-the-right-start-bbe6f3382cb},
    year = {2020},
    date = {2020-02-07},
    journal = {Phys. Rev. Applied},
    volume = {13},
    pages = {024016},
    abstract = {Selected as an Editor's Suggestion.

    A common impediment to qubit performance is imperfect state initialization. In the case of the diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, the initialization fidelity is limited by fluctuations in the defect's charge state during optical pumping. Here, we use real-time control to deterministically initialize the NV center's charge state at room temperature. We demonstrate a maximum charge initialization fidelity of 99.4±0.1% and present a quantitative model of the initialization process that allows for systems-level optimization of the spin-readout signal-to-noise ratio. Even accounting for the overhead associated with the initialization sequence, increasing the charge initialization fidelity from the steady-state value of 75% near to unity allows for a factor-of-two speedup in experiments while maintaining the same signal-to-noise-ratio. In combination with high-fidelity readout based on spin-to-charge conversion, real-time initialization enables a factor-of-20 speedup over traditional methods, resulting in an ac magnetic sensitivity of 1.3 nT/Hz1/2 for our single NV-center spin. The real-time control method is immediately beneficial for quantum sensing applications with NV centers as well as probing charge-dependent physics, and it will facilitate protocols for quantum feedback control over multi-qubit systems.},
    keywords = {},
    pubstate = {published},
    tppubtype = {article}
    }

    Close

    Selected as an Editor's Suggestion.

    A common impediment to qubit performance is imperfect state initialization. In the case of the diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, the initialization fidelity is limited by fluctuations in the defect's charge state during optical pumping. Here, we use real-time control to deterministically initialize the NV center's charge state at room temperature. We demonstrate a maximum charge initialization fidelity of 99.4±0.1% and present a quantitative model of the initialization process that allows for systems-level optimization of the spin-readout signal-to-noise ratio. Even accounting for the overhead associated with the initialization sequence, increasing the charge initialization fidelity from the steady-state value of 75% near to unity allows for a factor-of-two speedup in experiments while maintaining the same signal-to-noise-ratio. In combination with high-fidelity readout based on spin-to-charge conversion, real-time initialization enables a factor-of-20 speedup over traditional methods, resulting in an ac magnetic sensitivity of 1.3 nT/Hz1/2 for our single NV-center spin. The real-time control method is immediately beneficial for quantum sensing applications with NV centers as well as probing charge-dependent physics, and it will facilitate protocols for quantum feedback control over multi-qubit systems.

    Close

    • https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.08741
    • https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.13.024016
    • https://medium.com/penn-engineering/penn-engineers-ensure-quantum-experiments-ge[...]

    Close

  • Penn Medium: Penn Engineers Ensure Quantum Experiments Get Off to the Right StartFebruary 20, 2020

    Our paper on real-time control is featured in Penn Medium.

  • A Special Issue of Nanophotonics explores current research with defects in emerging materials, including our perspective on Quantum Defects by DesignNovember 21, 2019
    Quantum defects by design

    Bassett, L. C.; Alkauskas, A.; Exarhos, A. L.; Fu, K. -M. C.

    Quantum defects by design Journal Article

    In: Nanophotonics, vol. 8, no. 11, 2019.

    Abstract | Links | BibTeX

    @article{Bassett2019b,
    title = {Quantum defects by design},
    author = {L. C. Bassett and A. Alkauskas and A. L. Exarhos and K.-M. C. Fu},
    url = {https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/nanoph/8/11/article-p1867.xml},
    year = {2019},
    date = {2019-10-04},
    journal = {Nanophotonics},
    volume = {8},
    number = {11},
    abstract = {Part of Special Issue on Quantum Nanophotonics in Emerging Materials.

    Miniaturization of electronic and opto-electronic semiconductor devices has been happening ever since the first such devices appeared. Eventually, one can envision a device that is composed of just a few atoms. As these atoms ideally should not float in free space, but should be embedded in a solid-state matrix, this naturally brings one to the concept of a point defect (an impurity atom or complex of atoms) as the ultimate electronic or opto-electronic device. At such tiny length scales the behavior of physical systems is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is no surprise that an increasing number of point defects are being considered as building blocks for various applications in the field of quantum information science; more specifically, in quantum sensing, quantum communication, and quantum computing [1], [2], [3], [4]. We refer to these desirable defects as quantum point defects (QPDs). Prominent examples include the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, the silicon-vacancy (SiV) center in diamond, the divacancy in silicon carbide, and rare-earth impurities in complex oxides.},
    keywords = {},
    pubstate = {published},
    tppubtype = {article}
    }

    Close

    Part of Special Issue on Quantum Nanophotonics in Emerging Materials.

    Miniaturization of electronic and opto-electronic semiconductor devices has been happening ever since the first such devices appeared. Eventually, one can envision a device that is composed of just a few atoms. As these atoms ideally should not float in free space, but should be embedded in a solid-state matrix, this naturally brings one to the concept of a point defect (an impurity atom or complex of atoms) as the ultimate electronic or opto-electronic device. At such tiny length scales the behavior of physical systems is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is no surprise that an increasing number of point defects are being considered as building blocks for various applications in the field of quantum information science; more specifically, in quantum sensing, quantum communication, and quantum computing [1], [2], [3], [4]. We refer to these desirable defects as quantum point defects (QPDs). Prominent examples include the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, the silicon-vacancy (SiV) center in diamond, the divacancy in silicon carbide, and rare-earth impurities in complex oxides.

    Close

    • https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/nanoph/8/11/article-p1867.xml

    Close

Lee C. Bassett | University of Pennsylvania
Copyright ©2014 The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
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