Inorganic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Ryan G. Hadt, California Institute of Technology

About the Seminar 

Molecular Quantum Information Science with Electron Spins

Quantum technologies based on molecular electron spin coherence afford unique potential in miniaturization, spatial localization, and tunability through synthetic chemistry and our ability to leverage and manipulate more complex biological systems. However, many applications within molecular quantum information science hinge on prolonged spin relaxation, a process that effectively leaks quantum information into the environment. This talk will first describe the development and application of ligand field spin dynamics, a molecular paradigm to construct spin relaxation structure-function relationships and elucidate the critical bonding, symmetry, and ligand field vibronic excited state coupling factors enabling room temperature coherence. The talk will then describe a proof-of-concept approach to biological quantum sensing using metalloprotein active sites.

About the Speaker 

Ryan G. Hadt received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry at the University of Minnesota Duluth (with V. N. Nemykin) and his Ph.D. at Stanford University (with E. I. Solomon). He was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University (with D. G. Nocera) before continuing research at Argonne National Laboratory as a postdoctoral appointee (with L. X. Chen) and later as an Enrico Fermi Fellow. In 2018, he joined the faculty in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Hadt’s research interests are broadly based in the fundamental understanding of transition metal electronic structure, with applications in catalysis, photophysics/photochemistry, and quantum information science.

Host: Ed Solomon