CCI Phase I: NSF Center for Advanced Molecular Architectures for Quantum Information Science

The NSF Center for Advanced Molecular Architectures for Quantum Information Science is supported by the Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program in the Division of Chemistry. Professor Anastassia Alexandrova in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) will lead a research team composed of Assistant Professor Justin Caram (Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA), Distinguished Professor Miguel Garcia-Garibay (Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA), Professor Eric Hudson (Physics and Astronomy, UCLA), and Professor Anna Krylov (Chemistry, University of Southern California) to develop new molecular and surface platforms that contain molecular appendages that can act as quantum bits (qubits).

These “quantum functional groups” have particular magnetic spin and electric charge, which can be excited with lasers and prepared into “superpositions” of quantum states—the fundamental building block of a quantum computer. However, unlike current quantum computing platforms, which are built from the top down and are limited to less than 100 qubits, quantum functional groups on molecules can be made and scaled to trillions of identical addressable qubits, potentially providing a novel architecture for enormous quantum computers.

Computational programs based on qubits are expected to solve problems at much higher speeds than classical computers and simulate complicated systems that are beyond the capabilities of any current computer. Such quantum approaches may also revolutionize ultra-secure communications (quantum Internet) and ultra-precise chemical and physical measurements (quantum sensing).

Using the rules of chemistry and the tools of molecular design and synthesis, coupled with advanced spectroscopy and computation, the Center will make use of unrealized molecular complexity to develop quantum information systems that enable substantially more flexible, scalable, and achievable quantum systems. As a result, the Center will tailor the systems to meet a variety of quantum information science (QIS) needs in sensing and computing, while simultaneously opening a new branch of chemistry, namely, the chemistry of QIS.

The center will also engage researchers at the intersection of multiple traditional disciplines, where the future of QIS resides. The Center’s team will advance education via workshops, innovative courses and modules, and a teachers education program. Students will be recruited at all levels and from diverse backgrounds using innovative strategies, and the contributions of women and underrepresented groups will be promoted through Center activities, while growing the QIS community centered in chemistry.

Achieving quantum enhancement in sensing, communication, and computing requires the high-fidelity preparation, maintenance, and readout of defined quantum states, which then would be resistant to decoherence and amenable to entanglement. So far, the most successful systems that exhibit such clean quantum states are those of extreme simplicity: atoms, very small molecules in vacuo, and defects in solids.

Because the electronic states in these systems are “closed”, i.e., strictly localized to an atom or a defect, they can be optically cycled without dissipation to the environment, and decoherence can be managed. However, what is gained in coherence, is lost in system complexity and thus flexibility, scalability and eventual practicability. This NSF Center will use the rules of chemistry to substantially expand the repertoire of systems, and therefore the capabilities, available for QIS.

We will design molecules that carry qubit functionalities (or quantum functional groups), by using chemical complexity rather than avoiding it. Because molecules are identical and can be synthesized in molar quantities, they can be assembled into scalable, next-generation quantum information platforms - a combination of features not yet realized. Broader impacts will include education of researchers at the intersection of traditional disciplines: physical, synthetic, and theoretical chemistry, and physics.

We will recruit students at all levels and from diverse backgrounds, using innovative recruiting strategies, such as through research days for visiting undergraduate students, and young researchers at the moment of transfer from Community Colleges. Promoting women and underrepresented groups will be central to all Center activities. The Center will make a significant effort toward building the QIS community housed in the field of chemistry, through organizing symposia, bootcamps, workshops, cross-departmental courses, innovative modules for undergraduate classes, and regular communication of all researchers of the center, from all involved backgrounds.

The Center will develop a teacher education program, through which they will be provided visualization tools that will amplify their ability to reach large numbers of high school students. Outreach to the public will be done by growing and diversifying established, successful platforms, such as the Explore Your Universe event by the Division of Physical Sciences of UCLA.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.