Advances in the quantum sciences have the potential to dramatically change the world around us, impacting computation, climate change, medicine, and cybersecurity, while also enabling the exploration of novel physics. Currently, subfields within quantum science, such as quantum information, in which controllable quantum systems are used as a resource for computing, sensing, and other applications, and quantum materials, which studies the exotic properties of materials in which the details of the quantum-mechanical wave functions of electrons play an essential role, are largely separate. However, by leveraging approaches and techniques from each, there is potential to make radical advances in the two fields, which I will show through the discussion of research I have performed in both fields. First, I will present an experiment in which a spin qubit is used to measure proximal magnetic fields in order to extend the qubit’s coherence time. Second, I will present measurements of the superfluid density of infinite-layer nickelate superconductors, and describe how that enables investigation of the origins of superconductivity in the material. Finally, I will discuss future experiments that unite these fields, creating new opportunities for investigating fundamental physics and improving quantum devices.

Shannon Harvey is a postdoctoral scholar in the Applied Physics Department at Stanford University, studying the newly discovered nickelate superconductors. She received her PhD. in Physics from Harvard University in 2019, where she worked on spin qubits, one of the possible building blocks for a quantum computer. She won the Goldhaber Prize and White Teaching Prize from the Harvard Physics Department, and was a recipient of the NDSEG fellowship.