QUANTUM SENSING. BIO-INSPIRED COMPUTING
Vision
We design materials and devices in which sensing and computation are implemented through the material’s own physical dynamics, rather than through external circuitry. Conventionally, materials design targets electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties. We extend this to a new design objective: information-processing capacity. We use density-functional theory, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and quantum transport simulations to predictively link material structure to device function.
Theme 1: Quantum Sensing Through Materials Design
We design materials and devices to enhance the sensitivity of quantum sensors whilst maintaining resolution and bandwidth. Sensitivity is the critical bottleneck for translating quantum sensing into real-world applications. In defect-based quantum sensors, it is governed by material properties such as spin relaxation time (T₁), coherence time (T₂), and measurement contrast (C). These properties are in turn determined by the atomic-scale structure of the defect-host system. As sensitivity is determined by material structure, inverse materials design offers a systematic approach to this challenge.
Theme 2: Bio-Inspired Computing Through Materials Design
We study the principles that drive biological computation and design materials that realize them. These principles, including stochasticity, collective computation, and self-adaptation, are distinct from those underlying conventional digital systems. We design material structure whose dynamics embody them, enabling computation through the material itself (in-materio). The resulting devices could explore complex solution spaces via physical computation and adapt to their environment autonomously in real time. These capabilities are native to physical systems, not to software.