Prof Arzhang Ardavan

Abstract:

We report the two-step synthesis of a highly soluble fullerene dimer, both for short reaction times and at the microscale. We apply this reaction scheme to starting materials that contain 15N@C60 and 14N@C60, and we demonstrate how, if applied to highly pure N@C60 in the future, this scheme may be used to produce (14N@C60)2 or (15N@C60)2 dimers in one step, and crucially 14N@C60-15N@C60 dimers in a second step. Such dimers represent isolated electron spin pairs that may be used to demonstrate entanglement between the spins. Additionally, CW EPR spectroscopy of the 15N@C60-C60 dimer in the solid state reveals permanent zero-field splitting (D = 14.6 MHz and E = 0.56 MHz). © 2013 Royal Society of Chemistry.

Abstract:

High-spin paramagnetic manganese defects in polar piezoelectric zinc oxide exhibit a simple, almost axial anisotropy and phase coherence times of the order of a millisecond at low temperatures. The anisotropy energy is tunable using an externally applied electric field. This can be used to control electrically the phase of spin superpositions and to drive spin transitions with resonant microwave electric fields. © 2013 American Physical Society.