The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
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South Gibson Star-Times Tuesday, September 6, 2022 A-5 Haubstadt woman seeks witnesses By Janice Barniak Star-Times Editor editor@sgstartimes.com Cher yl Benkert of Haub- stadt asked friends on social media this weekend to help her find the owner of a two- wheel cart that damaged her vehicle Aug. 31. Benkert was headed west on Ind. 68 just before 10 a.m. when a truck pulling an open trailer dropped a two- wheel cart onto her side of the road, causing her to hit it and damaging her van. "If I hadn't veered to the right it could have gone through my windshield and I wouldn't be telling my sto- r y," Benkert told the Star- Times. The tr uck did not stop, and when she went back to get the car t it was gone, so she said she was not sure whether the tr uck owner picked it up or if someone else did, but she's seeking witnesses to the accident. 2D array of electron and nuclear spin qubits opens new frontier in quantum science By using photons and electron spin quantum bits (qubits) to control nuclear spins in two-dimensional material, researchers at Purdue University have opened a new frontier in quantum science and tech- nology, enabling applica- tions like atomic-scale nu- clear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and to read and write quantum informa- tion with nuclear spins in 2D materials. As published August 15 in Nature Materials, the re- search team used electron spin qubits as atomic-scale sensors, and also to ef fect the first experimental con- trol of nuclear spin qubits in ultrathin hexagonal bo- ron nitride. "This is the first work showing optical initializa- tion and coherent control of nuclear spins in 2D materi- als," said cor responding au- thor Tongcang Li, a Purdue associate professor of phys- ics and astronomy and elec- trical and computer engi- neering, and member of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute. "Now we can use light to initialize nuclear spins and with that control, we can write and read quantum information with nuclear spins in 2D materials. This method can have many dif ferent applications in quantum memor y, quantum sensing, and quantum sim- ulation." Quantum technology de- pends on the qubit, which is the quantum version of a classical computer bit. It is often built with an atom, subatomic par ticle, or pho- ton instead of a silicon transistor. In an electron or nuclear spin qubit, the familiar binar y "0" or "1" state of a classical computer bit is represented by spin, a proper ty that is loosely analogous to magnetic po- larity — meaning the spin is sensitive to an electromag- netic field. To per form any task, the spin must first be controlled and coherent, or durable. The spin qubit can then be used as a sensor, prob- ing, for example, the str uc- ture of a protein, or the temperature of a target with nanoscale resolution. Elec- trons trapped in the defects of 3D diamond cr ystals have produced imaging and sensing resolution in the 10-100 nanometer range. But qubits embedded in single-layer, or 2D materi- als, can get closer to a tar- get sample, of fering even higher resolution and stron- ger signal. Paving the way to that goal, the first elec- tron spin qubit in hexago- nal boron nitride, which can exist in a single layer, was built in 2019 by removing a boron atom from the lattice of atoms and trapping an electron in its place. So-called boron vacancy electron spin qubits also of fered a tantalizing path to controlling the nuclear spin of the nitrogen atoms sur- rounding each electron spin qubit in the lattice. In this work, Li and his team established an inter- face between photons and nuclear spins in ultrathin hexagonal boron nitrides. The nuclear spins can be optically initialized – set to a known spin — via the sur rounding electron spin qubits. Once initialized, a radio frequency can be used to change the nuclear spin qubit, essentially "writing" information, or to measure changes in the nuclear spin qubits, or "read" informa- tion. Their method har ness- es three nitrogen nuclei at a time, with more than 30 times longer coherence times than those of electron qubits at room temperature. And the 2D material can be layered directly onto anoth- er material, creating a built- in sensor. "A 2D nuclear spin lattice will be suitable for large- scale quantum simulation," Li said. "It can work at high- er temperatures than super- conducting qubits." To control a nuclear spin qubit, researchers began by removing a boron atom from the lattice and replac- ing it with an electron. The electron now sits in the cen- ter of three nitrogen atoms. At this point, each nitrogen nucleus is in a random spin state, which may be -1, 0, or +1. Next, the electron is pumped to a spin-state of 0 with laser light, which has a negligible ef fect on the spin of the nitrogen nucleus. Finally, a hyper fine inter- action between the excited electron and the three sur- rounding nitrogen nuclei forces a change in the spin of the nucleus. When the cycle is repeated multiple times, the spin of the nu- cleus reaches the +1 state, where it remains regardless of repeated interactions. With all three nuclei set to the +1 state, they can be used as a trio of qubits. At Purdue, Li was joined by Xingyu Gao, Sumukh Vaidya, Peng Ju, Boyang Ji- ang, Zhujing Xu, Andres E. Llacsahuanga Allcca, Kun- hong Shen, Sunil A. Bhave, and Yong P. Chen, as well as collaborators Kejun Li and Yuan Ping at the University of Califor nia, Santa Cr uz, and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe at the Na- tional Institute for Materi- als Science in Japan. "Nuclear spin polarization and control in hexagonal bo- ron nitride" was published with suppor t from Purdue Quantum Science and En- gineering Institute, DARPA, National Science Founda- tion, U.S. Depar tment of Energy, Of fice of Naval Re- search, Tohoku AIMR and FriDUO program, and JSPS KAKENHI. O N L I N E • S M A RT P H O N E • TA B L E T sgstartimes.com/edition Web, Smartphone, Tablet Streamline the Headline! 812-753-3553 • 203 S. McCreary St. Fort Branch, IN • ads@sgstartimes.com Using photons and electron spin qubits, researchers demonstrated atomic-scale sensing for use in nuclear mag- netic resonance (NMR), and by controlling nuclear spin, creating nuclear qubits with longer coherence times than previously used electron spin qubits. Now we can use light to initialize nuclear spins and with that control, we can write and read quantum information with nuclear spins in 2D materials. This meth- od can have many different applications in quantum memory, quantum sensing, and quantum simulation." -Tongcang Li sgstartimes.com/edition Web, Smartphone, Tablet Streamline the Headline! 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