Quantum-Coherent Nanoscience

TL;DR

This paper reviews the emerging field of quantum-coherent nanoscience, highlighting how quantum coherence at the nanoscale can enable new fundamental insights and practical applications across physics, chemistry, and engineering.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quantum-coherent nanoscience, categorizes control over various degrees of freedom, and discusses current advances, challenges, and future opportunities in integrating quantum coherence with nanoscience.

Findings

Quantum coherence can be controlled in charge, spin, mechanical motion, and photons at the nanoscale.

Merging nanoscience with quantum coherence opens new research opportunities and technological applications.

Current challenges include maintaining coherence and developing practical control methods.

Abstract

For the past three decades, nanoscience has widely affected many areas in physics, chemistry, and engineering, and has led to numerous fundamental discoveries as well as applications and products. Concurrently, quantum science and technology has developed into a cross-disciplinary research endeavour connecting these same areas and holds a burgeoning commercial promise. Although quantum physics dictates the behaviour of nanoscale objects, quantum coherence, which is central to quantum information, communication and sensing has not played an explicit role in much of nanoscience. This Review describes fundamental principles and practical applications of quantum coherence in nanoscale systems, a research area we call quantum-coherent nanoscience. We structure this manuscript according to specific degrees of freedom that can be quantum-coherently controlled in a given nanoscale system such as charge, spin, mechanical motion, and photons. We review the current state of the art and focus on outstanding challenges and opportunities unlocked by the merging of nanoscience and coherent quantum operations.