Tunable clock transitions in lanthanide complexes for quantum information technologies*

Bottom-up chemical synthesis of molecular spin qubit architectures represents a novel way for pursuing next-generation quantum technologies that could substantially influence all fields of human activity from complex structural biology to finance.^1,2 Our work focuses on fine-tuning resonant clock transitions (CTs) within 4f ⁿ5d¹ Ln(II) complexes, such that the associated transition frequencies, f, are insensitive to the local magnetic induction, B₀, with df/dB₀ → 0 at the CT minimum. This offers protection from magnetic noise and up to 10 times longer phase memory times, T_m, compared to conventional EPR transitions.³ As an added bonus, hyperfine CTs associated with significant s-d mixing in 4f ⁿ5d¹ Ln(II) complexes minimizes spin-orbit coupling, leading also to enhanced spin-lattice relaxation times, T₁.⁴

1. Perdomo-Ortiz et al., Sci. Rep., 2012, 2, 1–7.

2. Gershenfeld et al., Sci. Am., 1998, 278, 66–71.

3. Shiddiq et al., Nature, 2016, 531, 348–351.

4. Kundu et al., Nature Chem., 2022, 14, 392–397.