I am a Ph.D. student in Physics in the group of Prof. Dr. J. Wrachtrup where I work on quantum sensing using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond. Before starting my Ph.D. thesis, I obtained my Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (France), where I specialised in optics. During my first Master thesis project, I studied thermalisation of Bose-Einstein condensates. An important key message was here that even small system nonlinearities can play a fundamental role in phenomena such as supraconductivity and superfluidity. Building up on this experience, I conducted my second Master thesis project to observe experimentally the superfluid behaviour of light.
This experience has taught me that small perturbations are the fundamental building blocks of large events. Critically, our understanding of the world depends therefore on our capability of analysing the smallest phenomena in detail. I am very interested in pushing our current sensing technologies beyond its current limits, especially in the framework of bio-studies to improve our knowledge in the life sciences. Ultimately, this requires the development and use of non-invasive sensors which can be operated in complex environment, e.g. within biological cell surroundings.
To this end, I am using ensembles of NV centres, which have already demonstrated outstanding quantum sensing and imaging capabilities under ambient conditions. A key challenge towards achieving maximum performance is that all NV centres have to be manipulated synchronously, even if environmental conditions change in time. This can be achieved by dint of optimal control algorithms and one objective of my Ph.D. thesis is to focus on their implementation to improve the robustness of sensing protocols in integrated sensor systems.
Publications
- Konzelmann, T. Rendler, V. Bergholm, A. Zappe, V. Pfannenstill, M. Garsi, F. Ziem, M. Niethammer, M.Widmann, S.-Y. Lee, P. Neumann, J. Wrachtrup, “Robust and efficient quantum optimal control of spin probes in a complex (biological) environment. Towards sensing of fast temperature fluctuations”, New J. Phys. 20 123013 (2018)
- Ziem, M. Garsi. H. Fedder, J. Wrachtrup, “Quantitative nanoscale MRI with a wide field of view”, Scientific Reports 9, 12166 (2019)