Research & Work Experience

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Education:

Duke University, M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 2023
Focusing in Quantum Computer Hardware
Interested in applications of optics to Photonic and Trapped Ion Quantum Computers

University of California, Irvine, B.S. Physics, June 2021
Concentration in Computational Physics, minor in Information and Computer Science
Intereted in low temperature applications of quantum mechanics

Research:

As an independent subcontractor for Sandia National Laboratories' photonic and phononic microsystems lab, I've worked with Dr. Mike Gehl and Dr. Nils Otterstrom to develop high-fidelity intermodal quantum coherent four-wave mixing frequency conversion devices. These technologies aim to produce a reliable link between disparate quantum systems with photonic addressing frequencies ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared. This is done using a proprietary silicon nitride substrate with orders of magnitude lower loss than competing platforms. This allows us to develop nonresonant systems with very long path lengths (>1m) and thus, high efficiencies and flexible frequency support. We project that we will soon be able to create a multi-percent efficiency between 850nm and 780nm light and demonstrate linking between 785nm and o-band or c-band light. This would allow the linking of systems, including certain distant ion species and diamond vacancy centers. We hope over the next year, we will be able to demonstrate a link between 785nm and UV light on the same platform. Subsequently, we intend to demonstrate conversion between UV and NIR light.

I began a year-round internship during the summer in the middle of my master's degree. I worked for 1.25 years as an intern at Sandia National Laboratories in a group lead by Dr. Patrick Chu focused on photonic and phononic microsystems. Here I worked with Dr. Mike Gehl and Dr. Nils Otterstrom to demonstrate near unity efficiency in CMOS compatible ultra-low loss visible frequency waveguides. Using a 1.2m spiral Silicon Nitride PICs (Photonic Integrated Circuits) developed by Dr. Gehl I was able to demonstrate how one may obtain high fidelity freqeuncy conversions using BSFWM (Bragg Scattering Four Wave Mixing), and how this may be leveraged to tunably address heterogeneous quantum systems (specifically trapped ion, and photonic quantum computers, and repeaters). Doing so with low loss and high efficiency means the conversion between signal photons and idlers is far closer to unity than has ever been shown in the visible spectrum. Our design notably enables nonresonant flexible output frequency conversion. We did this using an Electro-Optic Modulator, an Acusto-Optic Modulator, and heterodyne measurement.

While at Duke, I began working with Dr. Jungsang Kim and Ely Novakoski. Ely lead the effort with my assistance to build a trapped ion system from start to finish. Our aim is to develop a photonic link between trapped ion systems. We assembled pressure chambers 10^-12 Torr, free-space and confined optics.

While at UC Irvine, I began working in Dr. Peter Taborek's research lab. I chose this lab, because it enabled me to operated and upgrade a cryostatic chamber as an undergraduate. Partly because Dr. Taborek's lab was very successful for so long, there was an inordinant supply of machines that had fallen into disrepair. I was given the freedom to pick the project that interested me best, so I chose to repair an optical cryostat. This cryostat was origionally designed in the mid-90's and hadn't been utilized for ~5 years. This crystat was notably used to first identify pinch-off of liquid helium drops. I was able to rewire, rebuild large parts of the vacuum system and learn about how crystatic chambers operate with hands on experience. During this pocess I was able to bring the stable operating temperature from ~4.6 K to ~1.2 K, which is well within the ~2 K threshold needed to oberserve superfluid effects. I achieved this in Febuary of 2020. Shortly thereafter, all research labs closed due to covid restrictions. During this time I continued to suggest potential research oportunities, such as implementing the schlieren to observe the uniformity of the density in liquid helium drops. After some restrictions were lifted I had to change projects, because multiple people are needed in the same room to open and close the cryostat, which would violate covid restrictions. I ended up working on an interferometry project setting up optics, so that a postdoc could measure the curvature of many types of alcohol drops as they evaporate on different materials at different humidities. This project was not particularly of interest to me, but it did teach me how to focus on functionality.

Starting in my junior year of high school, I first visited Dr. Sunita Ho's UCSF lab as part of a Boy Scout science outreach program. While there I asked Dr. Ho, "all day we've been talking about doing research using these machines, but what is research?" She said I ought to figure that out for myself and invited me to spend my thanksgiving break shadowing surgeons and researchers. From then on, every break from school I was taking the 3 hr round trip train ride to UCSF. I did this, because contributing to reserach was incredible fascinating. During my four years of research in Dr. Ho's UCSF lab, I learned how to ask questions that had meaningful answers and started to understand what it meant to be a researcher. Shortly after joining the lab, my responsibilities expanded as I contributed to nearly every project in the lab. Eventually, I became the de facto leader of wet lab, electron microscopy and autofluorescence imaging. As an undergraduate, I was often entrusted with training those new to the lab including medical doctors, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Alongside these roles, I conducted my own project which aimed to identify patterns in mineralization features between various biominerals including: arterial plaque, kidney stones, salivary stones and prostate stones. With this new focus, I wrote an abstract comparing kidney and salivary stone types using several correlative imaging techniques. I imaged more than 1000 hours in a variety of electron and x-ray imaging systems, including more than 90 hours at LBNL's ALS (Advanced Light Source). Working closely with postdocs and medical doctors exposed me to a variety of problem solving tactics and encouraged me to play devil's advocate in our weekly meetings to better develop the lab's experiments.

Alongside my research at Dr. Ho's lab I helped to develop outreach programs, such as UC Ignite. This program and its followup program F.I.T. are detailed on Dr. Ho's lab site.