David G. Cory holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing at the University of Waterloo. There he is a Professor of Chemistry, a member of the Institute of Quantum Computing and of the Waterloo Institute of NanoTechnology. An associate of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, he chairs the advisory committee for the Canada Institute for Advanced Research’s Quantum Information Processing program and chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Quantum Valley Investment Fund (QVI). In addition, he is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Shanghai Center for Complex Physics. He is an experimentalist working to develop spin-based examples of quantum processors. Since 1996 David and his students have been developing the experimental means to build small quantum processors. They have developed a wide range of quantum actuators, sensors and computers.
Abstract for 2016 Materials Characterization Workshop at UD:
Applications of Quantum Entanglement to Materials Characterization
Neutron Interferometry is a versatile tool for materials characterizing including magnetic materials. It is also an excellent example of macroscopic quantum coherence. Unfortunately, it is also notoriously difficult to construct a neutron interferometry so as to have a high and stable contrast. We have borrowed concepts from quantum information processing to build a new geometry for neutron interferometry that is more robust and much more compact than the current designs. Along the way we have developed new ways of using neutrons to probe the correlation lengths of materials structures as well as the helicity of materials. All of the measurements rely on having a neutron beam that is in an entangled state of spin, path, orbital and displacement. I will describe how having a quantum probe provides new opportunities for materials characterization.
