“Because everyone got along so “I would recommend the SNI PhD well, the courses as part of the SNI School to anyone who’s interested PhD School were also an opportu- in interdisciplinary science. nity to give each other open and Personally, I’d choose the SNI PhD honest feedback, which I found very School in Basel again every time.” helpful. As a result, I’m now able to Dr. Thomas Mortelmans, former SNI present my work with certainty and doctoral student and now a StepIN self-confidence.” Trainee at Johnson & Johnson Dr. Alexina Ollier, former SNI doctoral student and now a postdoc Jann Ungerer is currently a postdoc at the Department of Physics at the University of Basel. Coupling of a light quantum and a spin qubit For his PhD thesis, Dr. Jann Ungerer has coupled a single light particle (photon) with a spin qubit, the smallest informa- tion unit of a future quantum computer. With his work, he contributes to the real- ization of a spin-based quantum computer by demonstrating the possibility of using photons to couple clusters of spin qubits. Jann Ungerer has used single light par- ticles with a wavelength in the micro- wave range for this purpose. Normally, there is little interaction of photons with the intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of an electron. However, if the research- ers use a special superconducting resona- tor that stores single photons, the inter- action between photon and spin is en- hanced. In this way, Jann Ungerer has succeeded in coupling a single light par- ticle with an electron spin in a double quantum dot. Quantum dots are tiny structures in which the charge carriers are restricted in their mobility, allowing single elec- trons to be captured and manipulated. In his work, Jann Ungerer used a nanowire made of the semiconductor material in- dium arsenide, in which two different crystal structures give rise to a double quantum dot and make the coupling be- At the SNI Annual Event, the doctoral students present their tween photon and spin possible. work to the SNI network. Josh Zuber won the prize for the best Publication: https://bit.ly/3YRdAYh presentation, and Ajmal Roshan won a prize for his poster. SNI Annual Report 2022 19