Research Interests

My broad scientific interest is the control of quantum systems. The control of quantum systems explores the limits of our model of the microscopic world and offers the possibility of finding new technological applications for quantum properties.

Quantum Computing

My current research centers on quantum computation. Quantum computers offer algorithmic advantages over conventional computers by exploiting the fundamental quantum nature of matter. An introduction to quantum computation can be found here.

The difficulties in implementing a quantum computer are numerous. As Spinoza said, "Nature abhors a vacuum", and a quantum computer would misbehave even inside a vacuum. Fortunately, quantum error correction and the theory of fault tolerance gives us a pathway for reforming the errant quantum computer.

However, before fault tolerance theory can be applied, one requires a precisely controlled and scalable quantum system. My research has and is focused on achieving these two requirements. My graduate work was theoretical in nature and my post-doctoral work is a mixture of theory and experiment. In particular, I plan to test possible control schemes and algorithms using an NMR quantum computer. An introduction to NMR quantum computation can be found here .

Atomic and Molecular Optics

My closely related interest is the control of matter with quantized radiation and the control of radiation with quantized matter. I am particularly interested in the situation where a quantum property easily obtained in light or matter can be transferred to the other. For example, a single photon, a rare quantum state of light, can be generated from a single atom, a common quantum state of matter.