NATASJA JOVANOVIC
MSc in Applied Physics
Graduated in 2015
What is inspiring about quantum?
“The world on the nanoscale is just fascinating. On such a small scale, the classical laws of physics that we experience in daily live start to fade and quantum physics starts to dominate. It’s these quantum effects that we want to utilise to make a computer that can calculate problems which cannot be solved with a classical computer. A quantum computer makes use of quantum bits, which cannot only be encoded in the classical bits ‘0’ and ‘1’, but can be both ‘0’ and ‘1’ at the same time, or any value that is a combination of the two. This gives the quantum computer its extraordinary calculating power and in my master’s thesis on Applied Physics I have contributed to the construction of such a quantum computer.”
What kind of research are you working on?
“I did my research within QuTech in the group of Lieven Vandersypen where I worked on quantum dots. These are single electrons captured in a nanoscale ‘box’, the quantum dot, which can serve as a quantum bit. Such systems are complex and my research focused on a crucial step in scaling up, which involves capturing four single electrons captured in a quadruple quantum dot array. Such a task requires samples fabricated on the nanoscale, working at a temperature close to absolute zero and advanced signal analysis. A very challenging project!”
“WORKING AT QUTECH MEANS WORKING WITH AN AMBITIOUS, SMART AND FUN GROUP OF PEOPLE.”
- Natasja Jovanovic - MSc
Why should students choose QuTech to study quantum?
“Luckily as a master student you are a fully fledged member of the group and all the team members are happy to discuss any problems that you are facing. And while several groups in the world are working on such a system, it was here in Delft that I managed to be the first to have a fully controlled quadruple quantum dot array. This is a great result to end my master’s with and an important step in our field of research.”
“However, my work did not end there. Working at QuTech means working with an ambitious, smart and fun group of people. I very much enjoyed this atmosphere and I am happy that I got the opportunity to stay on as an assistant researcher to extend the work done during my master’s thesis.”
Natasja graduated in 2015. Her thesis: ‘Towards coherent shuttling of a single-electron spin in a quadruple quantum dot system’ was supervised by Professor Lieven Vandersypen. Find out what Natasja is doing nowadays
