Cryogenic Color Center Quantum Light Microscope (CCCQLM)

• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491065476

We propose a Cryogenic Color Center Quantum Light Microscope (CCCQLM) facility located at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz that will serve the needs of at least three (partially overlapping) research communities: the researchers developing novel techniques and applications of quantum sensing, the researchers working on new devices for quantum information processing and quantum communication architectures, and researchers studying topological and dynamical effects in condensed matter. The CCCQLM facility will foster activities in the above areas, and will nucleate new technologies and scientific discovery. To set up the CCCQLM, we propose acquisition of a state-of-the art wide-field magnetic imaging system for interdisciplinary research in the areas mentioned above. The CCCQLM will combine the capabilities of studying samples via wide-field magnetic microscopy with the following central features:• Operating temperature range from 2K to room temperature • Magnetic field of up to 5 T, with 2 T vector field capability• Sample scanning (~2 mm linear range) / fast sample changing• Ability to apply static electric and microwave fields• Conducting sensitive electric readout• Laser excitation of color centers, e. g. SiV, NV, rare earth centers, etc. • Polarization measurements, e.g., magneto-optical Kerr effectThe system will incorporate a state-of-the-art broadly tunable laser source that will allow advanced microscopy using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) and electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) based microscopy with various known and yet-to-be discovered color centers.The system will go beyond state-of-the-art instrumentation as it will use an advanced cryogenic-microscopy platform from a commercial supplier that can naturally accommodate the techniques previously developed in Mainz such as microwave-free and zero-field imaging.

• DFG Programme: Major Instrumentation Initiatives
• Major Instrumentation: Optisch-parametrischer Oszillator etc ; SQL Microscope and Crystat
• Instrumentation Group: 5040 Spezielle Mikroskope (außer 500-503) ; 6300 Meßgeneratoren, Meßsender, Frequenznormale
• Applicant Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
• Leader: Professor Dmitry Budker, Ph.D.