The research focuses on point defects in solids that may act as single photon source or perhaps quantum bits. The host crystals and point defects acting as single photon sources or quantum bits together are called quantum coherent materials. These can be employed in the development of quantum communication application and nanoscale sensors. The task of PhD candidate is to find prospective quantum coherent materials by means of systematic ab-initio calculations that may open new doors to science and development of quantum information. The solid state single photon sources used for quantum communication should satisfy some criteria such as they should be indistinguishable, they should dominantly emit coherently, and it is advantageous to emit at the transmission wavelengths of optical fibers. To this end, the PhD candidate will investigate the coupling strength of the ground and excited state to the stray electric fields, the intensity of the emission at the zero-phonon line (calculation of Debye-Waller factor), and the wavelength of the zero-phonon line emission. Quantum bits are often such single photon sources that have electron spins, so they are both optically and magnetically active. In these point defects, the electron-phonon interaction coupled to spin-orbit interaction, the hyperfine interaction between the electron spin and nuclear spins, and the electron spin-spin interaction for high spin systems play a role in the operation of the quantum bits. By calculating these interactions by the PhD candidate the quantum bits with prospective properties will be identified.
deep knowledge in quantum mechanics, good understanding of many-body physics; experience in ab-initio modeling is an advantage