ESE PhD Candidate Amelia Klein defended their thesis on Optical Interfacing of Solid-State Spin Defects Tuesday, July 21st. Advised by Professor Lee Bassett and Professor Nader Engheta , Klein’s research relates to two projects on solid-state defects for quantum technologies with the overarching theme of making the defect systems in each more scalable.
The first project focuses on “designing a metasurface that could be fabricated on diamond.” This, Klein explains, “enhances the ability to collect single-photon emission from a particular defect system and thereby increases the rate at which any operation can be performed.”
Regarding scalability, Klein designed the above structure to make the process of “collecting single-photon emission more scalable by removing the need for a large optical table with expensive free-space optics just to interface with a single defect. Though this structure was designed for a specific defect system, the techniques used to design it could be readily adapted more broadly,” Klein explains.
Klein’s second project examines europium ions in gallium nitride. “Typically, rare-earths for quantum technologies are studied in complex insulator hosts. The research here was to instead use a semiconductor host and investigate if the desirable properties of rare-earths continue to hold when the host material is a semiconductor,” Klein says, explaining, “If so, the semiconductor host material could enable all new ways of interfacing with the system and also allows for leveraging the more technologically mature nanofabrication methods in semiconductors to better be able to create devices.”
Experimental work such as Klein’s has its challenges. This proves particularly true when it comes to keeping the lab’s highly specialized equipment operational. “I definitely had a lot of calls with service technicians and spent a lot of time opening up and making internal adjustments to some of our equipment,” Klein explains. To circumvent temporary measurement delays, “it was always helpful to work on two things at the same time.”
According to Klein, advisors Professor Lee Bassett and Professor Nader Engheta demonstrated immeasurable support. “I would not have made it to where I am without them.” In addition, Klein found camaraderie with lab mates who helped create a “fun and supportive work environment.” Further, Klein extends gratitude to friends for their support.
Klein has several memorable experiences from their time at Penn. One standout experience includes TA’ing for Professor Anthony Sigillito’s ESE 3200 Qubit Lab – A Hands on Introduction to Quantum Devices. In this capacity, Klein and lab mate Joseph Minnella ran the lab component. Prior to TA’ing, both Klein and Minnella worked on “some outreach projects involving a quantum optics educational kit provided to us by Thorlabs.” Subsequently, “Professor Sigillito allowed the two of us to take over a portion of his undergraduate lab course and implement some of the experiments involving the kit,” Klein says, adding, “ It was a lot of fun to plan everything out and see how excited the students were about getting hands-on experience with quantum optics.”
Future plans for Klein involve working as an Industry Assistant Professor in the Applied Physics Department of New York University (NYU’s) starting this fall. In addition to teaching, Klein will develop an experimental quantum optics lab course taught at the recently launched MS program in Quantum Science and Technology at NYU. As Klein explains, “this will essentially be an extended and more in-depth version of what I taught in ESE 3200 that will be appropriate as a full-semester master’s-level course. I’m looking forward to teaching, though I’m also hoping I can find ways to stay involved in research.”
When not working, Klein enjoys playing video games, baking, and “spending time with my cat LB. Now that I’m done, I’m also looking forward to spending some time along the Schuylkill River trail before I leave Philadelphia.”
Learn more about Klein’s work here