Doctoral and postdoctoral positions in hybrid magnonics-photonics
About this role
We are looking for highly motivated Doctoral Researchers (PhD students) and Postdoctoral Researchers to work on experiments in a project that couples superconducting qubits, magnons and photoluminescent spin ions within a single chip-scale device. Magnons link the microwave and the optical domain, opening the way to efficient microwave-to-optical quantum transduction and to magnon-mediated entanglement between spin ions. Positions are available across the following research topics, each addressing a different pillar of the platform.
Topic 1
Strongly coupled magnon-microwave-photon-qubit hybrids in 3D magnetic fields
In this topic, we will develop high-Q superconducting microwave cavities on garnet substrates and integrate them with transmon circuits supplied by a collaborating quantum-circuits group. The work covers the deposition and nanostructuring of Nb and NbN resonators, their optimisation for magnetic-field resilience, and the design of a shared microwave cavity through which the qubit and the magnon mode couple. The central challenge is field compatibility: the fields needed to tune the magnons are precisely those that degrade qubit coherence, addressed through shielded and flip-chip geometries and through full vector control of the magnetic field, decoupling the direction the magnons require from the one the circuit tolerates. With the hybrid operational, we will characterise qubit-magnon coupling spectroscopically, and we will work towards entanglement between a qubit and a single magnon.
Topic 2
Hybrid quantum materials and integrated optical cavities for photoluminescent spin-ion-magnon coupling
The goal of this topic is an integrated high-Q optical cavity in which magnons and photoluminescent spin ions are both strongly coupled, operated at millikelvin temperatures. We will explore multiple material systems to identify a platform where high-Q magnons couple efficiently to the spin ions while long optical and spin lifetimes are preserved, using pulsed