NQCP - Life in Quantum Nanofabrication Facility Director Aeron Tynes Hammack, LBNL Molecular Foundry
Life in Superconducting Qubit Fabrication, and Quantum Sensing for Life Sciences and Cosmology
Our research at the Molecular Foundry Nanofabrication Facility focuses on developing and patterning new materials to develop novel qubits and superconducting resonators and to understand the materials science and patterning induced defects that underlying decoherence processes in these systems. In addition to qubit fabrication we have an active research program in applying these exquisitely sensitive devices as single particle detectors in the search for dark matter as well as for single photon counting in biological sensing for single molecule detection as well as for label free microscopy and spectroscopy from biological specimens. By applying quantum sensing techniques, we hope to achieve the biological assay development in the countably few particle limit to better understand biological processes and develop solutions to fundamental measurement challenges in biology. I will provide an overview of our recent advances in nanofabrication for novel superconducting qubits and resonators, as well as recent advances in quantum sensing for dark matter detection and biology.
Biography:Dr. Aeron Tynes Hammack is a Quantum Materials Physicist by training with significant industry experience in information storage technology and biotechnology research. He recently rejoined the Molecular Foundry at LBNL as a Staff Scientist and Director for the Nanofabrication Facility. Following his bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley, he received a PhD in condensed matter physics from UCSD studying Bose condensates in 2D coupled quantum wells at ultra-low temperatures using ultra-fast lasers. Following his postdoctoral work at the Molecular Foundry, he joined HGST/Western Digital as a Research Staff Member studying nanofabricated plasmonic devices for information storage on the Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) project, before co-founding a precision microbiome company focused on developing genetically modified phage based therapeutics to combat antibiotic resistance. His current research focuses on using quantum systems for biological sensing and information processing.