Welcome to the webpage of the Quantum Sensing & Defect Discovery and Spectroscopy lab at the Mechanical & Materials Engineering Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Our research interests lie at the intersection of experimental condensed matter physics with quantum optics and materials science to tackle outstanding challenges in nanoscale metrology, quantum computing, and physical science. We are pursuing three-main directions: i) Quantum Sensing using nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond (nanoscale probing of condensed matter physics phenomena, biosensing); ii) exploring novel solid-state materials based on color centers in wide bandgap semiconductors and two dimensional materials for quantum sensing, quantum computing, optoelectronics, and spintronics applications; iii) coupling disant spin qubits using magnetic and optical cavities for scalable quantum networks.
Recent News:
May 23, 2024: Dr. Laraoui and Dr. Sy-Hwang Liou group members joined for lunch at Pita & Naan to celebrate the end of spring semester achievements.
May 22, 2024: Our work in collaboration with Prof. Jingsheng Chen from National University of Singapore entitled “Direct imaging of room temperature magnetic skyrmions in gradient-DMI engineered CoPt single layers” is submitted to ACS Nano. A preprint is posted on arXiv. Great job Adam, Qihan, and Hamed for leading the nice work!
May 20, 2024: Sehrish Iqbal joined our group to work on the quantum sensing diamond NMR project within the UNL’s Grand Challenges funded Quantum Approaches Addressing Global Threats center. Welcome Sehrish and look forward to a productive successful PhD work.
May 17, 2024: Our work in collaboration with Profs. Christian Binek and Alexei Gruverman entitled “Imaging Local Effects of Voltage and Boron Doping on Spin Reversal in Antiferromagnetic Magnetoelectric Cr2O3 Thin Films and Devices” is submitted to Advanced Functional Materials. A preprint is posted on arXiv. Great job Adam for leading the nice work!
May 15, 2024: Our work in collaboration with Prof Christos Argyropoulos (Penns State) and Profs. Ufuk Kilic, Mathias Schubert, and Sy-Hwang Liou, entitled “Plasmonic Nanocavity to Boost Single Photon Emission from Defects in Thin Hexagonal Boron Nitride” is submitted to Laser & Photonic Reviews. A preprint is posted on arXiv. Great job Javad and Ufuk for leading the nice work!
May 16, 2024: Our work in collaboration with Profs. Xiaoshan Xu, Sy-Hwang Liou, and Jeffrey E. Shield entitled “Effect of substrate and thickness on spin-wave propagation properties in ferrimagnetic thulium iron garnet thin films” is submitted to Advanced Electronic Materials. A preprint is posted on arXiv. Great job Rupak for leading the nice work!
May 9, 2024: Our work in collaboration with Profs. Rebecca Lai and Sy-Hwang Liou entitled “Magnetic Relaxometry of Hemoglobin by Widefield Nitrogen-Vacancy Microscopy'' is submitted to APL Photonics. A preprint is posted on arXiv. Great job Suvechhya for leading the nice work!
May 2, 2024: Congratulations Joshua for getting the UCARE award to do research in quantum photonics using hBN. Look forward to exciting experiments. Also, Ben was selected to be in the waitlist, which is a great achievement.
April 26, 2024: Rupak successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations and look for the graduation ceremony in August of 2024.
April 24, 2024: Dr. Laraoui visited Prof. Kai-Mei Fu lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, and gave a seminar on diamond quantum sensing microscopy.
April 22- 25: Dr. Laraoui attended the 2024 MRS Spring Meeting in Seattle, WA and gave two talks: one invited on studying spin crossover and cytochrome c molecules using diamond quantum sensing microscopy. The second one is on using metal plasmon nanocavity to enhance quantum effects of single photon emitters in hBN flakes.
April 15, 2024: Adam passed successfully his PhD comprehensive exam. Congratulations PhD candidate Adam and look forward to your PhD defense in November of 20224.
March 14, 2024: Dr. Laraoui organized the The 2024 Nebraska Research and Innovation Conference -- Diamond Quantum Sensing: Challenges and Opportunities. Leaders (Nathalie de Leon, Chunhui (Rita) Du, Michael Flatté, Peter Maurer, Carlos Meriles, and Shimon Kolkowitz) on quantum sensing came to Lincoln, NE, and shared their recent exciting research to more than 100 participants.
March 3- 8, 2024: our group presented 5 contributed talks at the 2024 APS March Meeting in Minneapolis, MN and virtually. Talk 1: BB01.00005 Study of spin-wave propagation properties in ferrimagnetic insulator TmIG thin films: https://lnkd.in/gTwukW-8. Talk 2: D23.00008 Ferromagnetism and magnetic edge effects in Fe-implanted WS2 layers: https://lnkd.in/g3QXSGic. Talk 3: EE02.00005 Magnetic relaxometry study of cytochrome C using nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond: https://lnkd.in/gDeCx7tW. Talk 4: T23.00006 Room temperature direct imaging of topological spin textures in gradient-DMI engineered CoPt single layer: https://lnkd.in/gNnyJMFD. Talk 5: Y21.00008 Studying the effect of boron doping and thickness on antiferromagnetic domains in epitaxial B-Cr2O3 films using diamond scanning probe microscopy: https://lnkd.in/gdPWrgja.
January 29 - February 3, 2024: Dr. Laraoui attended SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco, CA and gave two talks: one as invited on the plasmonic cavity enhancement of quantum effects of single photon emitters in hBN. The second one is a contributed talk on studying cytochrome C proteins using diamond magnetic relaxometry.
January 11, 2024: Our paper entitled "Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetic Relaxometry of Nanoclustered Cytochrome C Proteins" has been published at Nano Letters. A preprint is posted at arXiv:2310.08605. Congratulations Suvechhya for the nice work!
December 10, 2023: Rupak's work on "Mapping of Spin-Wave Transport in Thulium Iron Garnet Thin Films Using Diamond Quantum Microscopy" has been published online at Advanced Electronic Materials. A preprint is posted at arXiv: arXiv:2310.06188.
November 28, 2023: Our work in collaboration with Dr. Christos Argyropoulos (now at Penns State) entitled “Plasmonic Nanocavity to Boost Single Photon Emission from Ultrathin Hexagonal Boron Nitride Defects” is submitted to Advanced Materials.
November 27, 2023: Our work in collaboration with Dr. Christos Argyropoulos (now at Penns State) entitled “Unraveling the formation dynamics of metallic femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures” is accepted at Optics and Laser Technology Journal. Live article can be found here: Optics & Laser Technology 171, 110410 (2024).
30 October 2023 – 3 November 2023: Dr. Laraoui attended the 68th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials in Dallas, TX and gave two talks: one was an invited talk on studying the effect of boron doping on antiferromagnetic domains in chromia. The second one is a contributed talk on mapping spin waves using nitrogen vacancy magnetic microscopy. Suvechhya gave a contributed talk on studying paramagnetic molecules using diamond quantum sensing microscopy.
October 19, 2023: Our NSF $800k funded ExpandQISE project, in collaboration with Drs. Kapildep Ambal and Jian Wang from Wichita State University, is highlighted by UNL's college of Engineering. Link
October 12, 2023: Joshua Barker, a UNL undergraduate in Electrical Engineering joined our group to work on quantum photonics with single photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride. Welcome Joshua!
October 9, 2023: Our submitted abstract “Plasmonic Nanocavity Enhanced Quantum Properties of Single Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride,” is accepted for an Invited Oral presentation at the Photonic and Phononic Properties of Engineered Nanostructures XIV conference, SPIE, to be held in San Francisco between 27 January - 1 February 2024.
October 7, 2023: Our work in collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Lai (Chemistry) entitled “Detection of Iron in Nanoclustered Cytochrome C Proteins Using Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetic Relaxometry” is submitted to Nano Letters. A preprint is posted a arXiv: arXiv:2310.08605.
October 2, 2023. Our paper entitled “An efficient method to create high-density nitrogen-vacancy centers in CVD diamond for sensing applications” is accepted at Diamond & Related Materials journal.
September 20, 2023: Rupak's work on "Mapping of Spin-Wave Transport in Thulium Iron Garnet Thin Films Using Diamond Quantum Microscopy" is submitted to Advanced Electronic Materials. A preprint is posted a arXiv: arXiv:2310.06188.
September 1, 2023: Yifei Wang, a Ph.D. Student at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), is visiting our group from September 1st to December 31st, 2023 to perform quantum sensing microscopy on 2D magnets. Welcome Yifei!
August 29, 2023: Dr. Laraoui is part of two awarded UNL's Grand Challenges teams. The first $4.17M catalyst award “Quantum Approaches Addressing Global Threats” is led by physicist Christian Binek and mathematician Susan Hermiller. Abdelghani Laraoui (MME) is part of IRG2 that will use quantum sensing technologies for sustainable agriculture and IRG3 (as a leader) that uses quantum technologies to mitigate the impact of climate change. Florin Bobaru (MME) is part of IRG 4 to develop Quantum Workforce and Quantum Literacy. The second funded $150k planning grant “Quantum Solutions for Energy Challenges: A Collaborative Leap Toward Sustainability” is led by Mohammad Ghashami (MME) with team including Abdelghani Laraoui (MME), Arman Roohi (School of Computing), and Sonya Türkman (interior design).
August 21, 2023: Our paper "Plasmon Enhanced Quantum Properties of Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems" is selected for the cover page at Advanced Optical Materials.
August 18, 2023: Dr. Laraoui is awarded a $800k NSF grant with Drs. Kapildeb Ambal and Jian Wang from Wichita State university within the ExpandQISE program.
Jul 23 - Jul 28, 2023: Dr. Laraoui attended the Gordon Research Conference in Quantum Sensing. He presented an invited talk on his lab's recent research progress on using diamond quantum sensors to study nanoscale magnetic phenomena in solid-state materials and spin crossover molecules. More information can be found here: https://www.grc.org/quantum-sensing-conference/2023/
Jul 19, 2023: Dr Laraoui presented a seminar entitled “Study Nanoscale Magnetic Phenomena With Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetic Microscopy” at the Institute of Chemistry and Materials of Strasbourg (IPCMS) in France. The link to the seminar announcement.
June 1, 2023: Enrique Stolz from Alfred University in NY and Mauricio Velasco from Central Community College in Columbus NE joined our group as REU students within the NSF funded EQUATE EPSCoR center to work on quantum cryogenic microscopy and quantum biosensing experiments respectively.
June 1, 2023: Ben Hammons, 12th grade, joined our group to work on the cryogenic diamond quantum sensing experiments. Thanks NCMN and Nebraska EPSCoR for supporting this through the Young Nebraska Scientists (YNS) program.
May 27, 2023. Our work in collaboration with Dr. Christos Argyropoulos (now at Penns State) entitled “Unraveling the formation dynamics of metallic femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures” is submitted to ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
May 8, 2023. Dr. Laraoui gave a seminar on Diamond Quantum Sensing Microscopy at University of Nebraska-Kearney (UNK) within Sigma Xi Science Cafe seminar series. Links to the advertisements at Twitter, Facebook, and UNK.
May 5, 2023. Thitinun (Nick) Gas-osoth, a Ph.D. Student at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), is visiting our group from May to August, 2023 to perform quantum sensing microscopy on 2D magnets. Welcome Nick!
April 26, 2023. Javad presented his work on Plasmon enhanced quantum properties of single photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride flakes at the 2023 virtual MRS Spring Meeting.
April 20, 2023. Our work in collaboration with Dr. Sy-Hwang Liou (Physics), Dr. Yinsheng Guo (Chemistry), and Dr. Rebecca Lai (Chemistry) entitled “Nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry of individual Fe-triazole spin crossover nanorods” is accpeted at ACS Nano.
April 18, 2023. Undergraduate student Nathan Reineke awarded UCARE funding for summer 2023 and academic year 2023-2024. Congratulations Nate!
April 17, 2023. Our work in collaboration with Dr. Christos Argyropoulos (now at The Pennsylvania State University) “Plasmon Enhanced Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems” is accepted at Advanced Optical Materials.
April 5, 2023. Dr. Laraoui gave a virtual seminar on Probing Magnetic Phenomena in Nanomaterials Using Diamond to Prof. Carlos Meriles group at City College of New York.
March 20-22, 2023. Suvechhya presented her work on NV magnetometry of Fe-triazole spin crossover molecules at the 2023 virtual APS March Meeting. Link to the abstract.
March 22, 2023. Dr. Laraoui gave an invited seminar, entitled "Probing solid state Phenomena in quantum materials using quantum sensors"at Wichita State University. The link to the talk at Youtube.
March 5-10, 2023. Adam, Rupak, and Dr. Laraoui presented 4 contributed talks at the 2023 APS March Meeting in Las Vegas. Links to the abstracts are: Adam, Rupak, Laraoui1, Laraoui2
January 25, 2023: Our work in collaboration with Dr. Kapil Ambal (Wichita State University) entitled “An efficient method to create high-density nitrogen-vacancy centers in CVD diamond for sensing applications” has been submitted to Diamond and Related Materials Journal. A preprint is posted on Arxiv: arXiv:2301.08712
January 23, 2023: Nathan Reineke, a UNL undergraduate student (Agricultural Engineering) joined our lab. Welcome Nate!
January 19, 2023: Dr. Laraoui gave an invited lecture on Probing Nanoscale Magnetic Phenomena Using Diamond Quantum Sensing Microscopy at the Virtual Lecture Series on Nanodiamond, organized by Adamas Nanotechnologies. The link to the talk at Youtube.
Check out our recent papers:
Adam Erickson, Qihan Zhang, Hamed Vakilitaleghani, Suvechhya Lamichhane, Ilja Fescenko, Edward Schwartz, Alexey Kovalev, Sy-Hwang Liou, Jingshen Chen, and Abdelghani Laraoui. Direct imaging of room temperature magnetic skyrmions in gradient-DMI engineered CoPt single layers, under review. A preprint is posted on arXiv.
Mohammadjavad Dowran, Ufuk Kilic, Suvechhya Lamichhane, Adam Erickson, Joshua Barker, Mathias Schubert, Sy-Hwang Liou, Christos Argyropoulos, and Abdelghani Laraoui.& Plasmonic Nanocavity to Boost Single Photon Emission from Defects in Thin Hexagonal Boron Nitride, Laser & Photonics Reviews, under second review. A preprint is posted on arXiv
Adam Erickson, Ather Mahmood, Syed Qamar Abbas Shah, Ilja Fescenko, Christian Binek, Abdelghani Laraoui. Imaging Local Effects of Voltage and Boron Doping on Spin Reversal in Antiferromagnetic Magnetoelectric Cr2O3 Thin Films and Devices, under review at Advanced Functional Materials. A preprint is posted on arXiv.
Suvechhya Lamichhane, Evelyn Carreto Guevara, Ilja Fescenko, Sy-Hwang Liou, Rebecca Y. Lai, and Abdelghani Laraoui. Magnetic Relaxometry of Hemoglobin by Widefield Nitrogen-Vacancy Microscopy, under review at APL Photonics. A preprint is posted on arXiv.
Rupak Timalsina, Bharat Giri, Haohan Haohan, Adam Erickson, Suchit Sarin, Suvechhya Lamichhane, Sy-Hwang Liou, Jeffrey E. Shield, Xiaoshan Xu, and Abdelghani Laraoui. Effect of substrate and thickness on spin-wave propagation properties in ferrimagnetic thulium iron garnet thin films, under review at Advanced Electronic Materials. A preprint is posted on arXiv.
Suvechhya Lamichhane, Rupak Timalsina, Cody Schultz, Ilja Fescenko, Kapildeb Ambal, Sy-Hwang Liou, Rebecca Y. Lai, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetic Relaxometry of Nanoclustered Cytochrome C Proteins, Published on January 11, 2024 at Nano Letters. A preprint is posted at arXiv:2310.08605
Rupak Timalsina, Haohan Wang, Bharat Giri, Adam Erickson, Xiaoshan Xu, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Mapping of Spin-Wave Transport in Thulium Iron Garnet Thin Films Using Diamond Quantum Microscopy, Advanced Electronic Materials 2300648 (2023). A preprint is posted at arXiv: arXiv:2310.06188.
L. Khosravi Khorashad, A. Reicks, A. Erickson, J. E. Shield, D. Alexander, A. Laraoui, G. Gogos, C. Zuhlke, and C. Argyropoulos. Unraveling the formation dynamics of metallic femtosecond laser induced periodic surface structures,
Optics & Laser Technology 171, 110410 (2024). A preprint is posted at arXiv.
Suvechhya Lamichhane, Kayleigh A McElveen, Adam Erickson, Ilja Fescenko, Shuo Sun, Rupak Timalsina, Yinsheng Guo, Sy-Hwang Liou, Rebecca Y. Lai, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry of individual Fe-triazole spin crossover nanorods, ACS Nano 17, 9, 8694–8704 (2023). arXiv:2303.09636.
Mohammadjavad Dowran, Andrew Butler, Suvechhya Lamichhane, Adam Erickson, Ufuk Kilic, Sy-Hwang Liou, Christos Argyropoulos, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Plasmon Enhanced Single Photon Emitters with Hybrid Hexagonal Boron Nitride Silver Nanocube Systems, Advanced Optical Materials 2300392 (2023) . arXiv:2304.00314
Prem Bahadur Karki, Rupak Timalsina, Mohammadjavad Dowran, Ayodimeji E. Aregbesola, Abdelghani Laraoui, and Kapildeb Ambal, An efficient method to create high-density nitrogen-vacancy centers in CVD diamond for sensing applications, Diamond and Related Materials, Volume 140, Part B, 110472 (2023).
Adam Erickson, Syed Qamar Abbas Shah, Ather Mahmood, Ilja Fescenko, Rupak Timalsina, Christian Binek, and Abdelghani Laraoui, Nanoscale imaging of antiferromagnetic domains in epitaxial films of Cr2O3 via scanning diamond magnetic probe microscopy, RSC Advances 13, 178-185 (2023). arXiv:2209.07476
Abdelghani Laraoui, and Kapildeb Ambal, Opportunities for nitrogen-vacancy-assisted magnetometry to study magnetism in 2D van der Waals magnets, Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 060502 (2022).
Location:
Our labs are located at Scott Engineering building (Lab 127.4A, Lab 250), 844 N 16th St, Lincoln, NE 68508. We have access to world-class facilities, including the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience (NCMN) and Nano-Engineering Research Core Facility (NERCF) at UNL’s College of Engineering.
Opennings:
We are hiring motivated postdocs, undergraduate and graduate students to join our group and work in a very friendly and productive research environment. Please feel free to email Dr. Laraoui at alaraoui2@unl.edu or just stop by his office, located in Nebraska Hall, Room W312.