Project

Shaped Ultrafast Pulse Optical Pumping of NMR Systems

Near-unity polarization of nuclear systems in atoms has been demonstrated via optical pumping. This relies on pumping specific absorption lines of atoms. Molecules are required to provide enough qubits for computations. Molecular absorption spectra are much more broadband, and therefore will require a more complex pumping signal in order to attain polarization. We will be investigating the feasibility of using shaped ultrafast optical pumping to improve nuclear polarization. High nuclear spin polarization is a route to increasing the number of qubits available and thereby the usefulness of NMR quantum computers.