ECE Fall Seminar Series

NEP Speaker, Lee Bassett, Univeristy of Pennsylvania

Title: "Defective: Quantum Engineering: Embracing the quantum limit in semiconductor devices

Abstract

Counterintuitively, the same atom-scale defects that are the bane of integrated electronic devices might be the key to a grand challenge of 21st century engineering: to harness the enormous complexity and sensitivity of quantum-coherent systems for practical applications. Certain point defects exhibit quantum-mechanical features comparable to isolated atoms or molecules, but in room temperature devices amenable to integration via semiconductor nanofabrication.  I will introduce this emerging research field and describe recent efforts to identify, create, and control quantum states in solid-state devices.  Quantum engineering research connects disparate areas in nanophotonics, information processing, materials science, physics, and electrical engineering, and has wide-ranging applications in quantum computing, secure communication, and high-performance sensors.

Bio

Lee Bassett is Assistant Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering and responsible for the Quantum Engineering Lab (http://nanoquant.seas.upenn.edu/) at the University of Pennsylvania.  Following undergraduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University (BS Physics, 2004), Lee travelled to the United Kingdom as a Marshall Scholar and NSF Graduate Research Fellow to complete the MASt (Part III) in Mathematics (2005, with distinction) and PhD in physics (2009) at the University of Cambridge, the latter for his work on low temperature quantum electronics in III/V semiconductor devices.  From 2009-2013 he was a Hewlett Packard Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He received the NSF CAREER award in 2016 and the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising in 2018.