Paola Cappellaro

Bio

Education

Ph.D., Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006
M.S., Applied Physics, École Centrale Paris, 2000
B.S/M.S., Nuclear Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 2000

Awards

• Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2023
• Committed to Caring, 2020
• Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professorship, 2013
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award, 2012
• PAI Outstanding Teacher Award, MIT student chapter of the American Nuclear Society, 2010
• Graduate Teaching Award, MIT School of Engineering, 2005
• Manson Benedict Fellowship, MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2004

Research

Quantum Engineering

The development of new technologies at scales approaching the quantum regime is driving new theoretical and experimental research on control in quantum systems. The implementation of quantum control would have an enormous impact on a wide range of fields such as chemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance, microelectronics, and precision metrology. Quantum control finds an ideal application in quantum information processing (QIP), which promises to radically improve the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information. To reach this goal it is necessary to improve both the experimental techniques and the coherent control theory of quantum bits (qubits), as well as to gain a deeper knowledge of the mechanisms of decoherence, which must be studied and fought against. Below are some projects that my group is working on.

Control of quantum registers with NV centers in diamond

The Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) center has recently emerged as a versatile tool for magnetic resonance,quantum optics, precision measurement and quantum information processing. The NV center is a localized impurity in diamond, consisting of a nitrogen substitutional atom close to a vacancy.Single NV centers are addressed using optical scanningconfocal microscopy and can be efficiently prepared, manipulated and measured with optical and microwave excitation, even at room temperature. The system comprising the NV electronic spin and close-by nuclear spins (N and ¹³C) is an excellent candidate for the implementation of small quantum registers capable of simple quantum algorithms with very high fidelities. These quantum registers can then in turn be connected via photon entanglement or direct dipole-dipole coupling. In this project, we will develop high-fidelity methods for controlling the electronic-nuclear spin system.

Diamond magnetometer and precision metrology

In recent years metrology and quantum information science have emerged as complementary areas of research. We aim at applying the principles of quantum information science to the development of nano-scale magnetic field sensors based on single spin qubits in diamond. We focus on improving the diamond magnetometer readout, enhancing its coherence, improving its spatial resolution and devising strategies to achieve sensitivity beyond the Heisenberg limit. Ideas and techniques from quantum information science are critical in achieving these goals, from quantum non-demolition measurement, to dynamical decoupling and spin squeezing.

Quantum simulation and transport of quantum information

A system composed of nuclear or electronic spins could play an important role -complementary to cold atoms and molecules- in the simulation of condensed matter systems. For example, well-known NMR pulse sequences can be used to experimentally simulate the transport of quantum information in room temperature linear chains of spins coupled by the dipolar interaction. The next step is to demonstrate transport of information between quantum registers via quantum wires in a highly mixed state. We will use solid-state NMR to study simulations and information transport in large spin systems.

Patents

"Electronic spin based enhancement of magnetometer sensitivity"; application 12/746,128; publication US 2010/0315079 A1; filed Dec 3, 2008; inventors: Mikhail Lukin, Ronald L. Walsworth, Amir Yacoby, Paola Cappellaro, Jake Taylor, Liang Jiang, Lillian Childress.

Publications

Recent Publications

1. A. Cooper, W. K. C. Sun, J.-C. Jaskula and P. Cappellaro
   “Identification and Control of Electron-Nuclear Spin Defects in Diamond”
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 083602 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

2. D. Layden, M. Chen and P. Cappellaro
   “Efficient Quantum Error Correction of Dephasing Induced by a Common Fluctuator”
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 020504 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

3. C. M. Sánchez, A. K. Chattah, K. X. Wei, L. Buljubasich, P. Cappellaro and H. M. Pastawski
   “Perturbation Independent Decay of the Loschmidt Echo in a Many-Body System”
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 030601 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

4. W. K. C. Sun, A. Cooper and P. Cappellaro
   “Improved entanglement detection with subspace witnesses”
   Phys. Rev. A 101, 012319 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

5. D. Layden, L. R. Huang and P. Cappellaro
   “Robustness-optimized quantum error correction”
   Quantum Science and Technology 5, 025004 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

6. G. Liu, M. Chen, Y.-X. Liu, D. Layden and P. Cappellaro
   “Repetitive readout enhanced by machine learning”
   Machine Learning: Science and Technology 1, 015003 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

7. Y. Wang, D. Dong, A. Sone, I. R. Petersen, H. Yonezawa and P. Cappellaro
   “Quantum Hamiltonian Identifiability via a Similarity Transformation Approach and Beyond”
   IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control In IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control , 1 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

8. P. Peng, C. Yin, X. Huang, C. Ramanathan and P. Cappellaro
   “Observation of Floquet prethermalization in dipolar spin chains”
   arXiv:1912.05799 (2019)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

9. C. Yin, P. Peng, X. Huang, C. Ramanathan and P. Cappellaro
   “Prethermal quasiconserved observables in Floquet quantum systems”
   arXiv:2005.11150 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

10. C. Li, T. Li, Y.-X. Liu and P. Cappellaro
    “Effective routing design for remote entanglement generation on quantum networks”
    arXiv:2001.02204 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

11. A. Sone, Y.-X. Liu and P. Cappellaro
    “Quantum Jarzynski equality in open quantum systems from the one-time measurement scheme”
    arXiv:2002.06332 (2020)

[Abstract] [BibTeX] [URL] [PDF]

Full list of publications

Teaching

22.51 Quantum Technology and Devices
22.02 Introduction to Applied Nuclear Physics

News

• MIT researchers discover “neutronic molecules”
• Technique could improve the sensitivity of quantum sensing devices
• Paola Cappellaro elected 2023 American Physical Society Fellow
• Three from MIT named American Physical Society Fellows for 2023
• Sensing and controlling microscopic spin density in materials
• Cancelling noise for improving quantum devices
• Engineers discover a new way to control atomic nuclei as “qubits”
• Quantum leaps on the horizon
• Achieving advisory equilibrium
• Novel method for easier scaling of quantum devices
• Correcting the “jitters” in quantum devices
• Quantum sensing method measures minuscule magnetic fields
• Scientists gain new visibility into quantum information transfer
• High-res biomolecule imaging
• The tenured engineers of 2016
• Stabilizing quantum bits
• Diamonds could help bring proteins into focus
• Doctoral students seek quantum control in Prof. Cappellaro’s Quantum Engineering Group
• Paola Cappellaro’s work with nanoscale diamonds unlocks secret codes
• NSE’s Cappellaro and team develop new method to control nanoscale diamond sensors
• Cappellaro appointed as Edgerton Career Development Professor
• Paola Cappellaro wins AFOSR Young Investigator Award
• A Quantum Engineer on the Frontier of Knowledge