Quantum Mimicry With Inorganic Chemistry

ABSTRACT

Quantum objects, such as atoms, spins, and subatomic particles, haveunique physical properties that could be useful for many different applications, ranging from quantum information processing to magnetic resonance imaging. Molecular species also exhibit these quantum properties, and, importantly, these properties are fundamentally tunable by synthetic design, unlike ions isolated in a quadrupolar trap, for example. In this comment, we distill multiple, distinct, scientific efforts into an emergent field that is devoted to designing molecules that mimic the quantum properties of objects like trapped atoms or defects in solids. Mimicry is endemic in inorganic chemistry and featured heavily in the research interests of groups across the world. We describe this new field of using molecular inorganic chemistry to mimic the quantum properties (e.g. the lifetime of spin superpositions, or the resonant frequencies thereof) of other quantum objects as “quantum mimicry.” In this comment, we describe the philosophical design strategies and recent exciting results from the application of these strategies.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Coordination chemistry
• molecular magnetism
• spin dynamics
• quantum sensing
• quantum information processing

Acknowledgements

We thank the following agencies for partial support during our writing of this review: The National Science Foundation (CAREER award 2047325), the National Institutes of Health (R21-EB027293), the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement (#27663), and Department of Energy (DE-SC0021259).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NSF [2047325]; National Institutes of Health [R21-EB027293]; Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement [27663]; U.S. Department of Energy [DE-SC0021259].