Metal-Organic Frameworks for Quantum Communication

imagen

Our group is currently developing high-throughput virtual-screening software using open-source RDKit tools together with in-house physical modelling, for the automated discovery of experimentally accessible single-crystal metal-organic frameworks (MOF) that can enable efficient second-harmonic generation (SHG) and spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). This computational material discovery effort expands our previous work on the design of nanoscale nonlinear waveguides for third-order quantum nonlinear optics.

Our goal is to build a large-scale computational and synthetic capacity to develop new entangled photon sources and frequency doubling devices based on high-quality MOF crystals. This is one of the main research directions of the new Millennium Institute for Research in Optics.

We are currently developing atomistic and phenomenological quantum decoherence models for molecular spin qubits based on high-quality MOF crystals, opening new directions in quantum sensing and information processing.

Representative Publications:

  • S. Paiva, R.A. Fritz, S. Raj, Y.J. Colón, F. Herrera, Efficient Generation of Polarization-Entangled Photons in Metal Organic Framework Waveguides, Optics Express 32, 29514, 2024.
  • S. Raj, S. Paiva, R.A. Fritz, F. Herrera, Y.J. Colón, First-Principles Screening of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Entangled Photon Pair Generation, Mater. Quantum. Technol. 4 015404, 2024.
  • K. Aruachan, Y. J. Colón, D. Aravena, F. Herrera, Semi-Empirical Haken-Strobl Model for Molecular Spin Qubits, New J. Phys. 25, 093031, 2023.
  • D. Hidalgo, J. M. García-Garfido, J. Enríquez, R. Rojas-Aedo, R. A. Wheatley, R. A. Fritz, D. P. Singh, F. Herrera, B. Seifert, Phase-Coherent Optical Frequency Up-Conversion with Millimeter-Size Zn(3-ptz)2 Metal-Organic Framework Single Crystals, Adv. Opt. Mat. 2300142, 2023.
  • J. García-Garfido, J. Enríquez, I. Chi-Durán, I. Jara, L. Vivas, F.J. Hernández, F. Herrera, D.P. Singh, Millimeter-scale Zn(3-ptz)2 metal-organic framework single crystals: self-assembly mechanism and growth kinetics, ACS Omega 6, 27, 17289–17298, 2021.
  • R.A. Fritz, Y. Colón, F. Herrera, Engineering entangled photon pairs using metal-organic frameworks, Chem. Sci. 12, 3475-3482, 2021.
  • I. Chi-Duran, J. Enriquez, C. Manquian, W. Cañon-Mancisidor, D. Venegas-Yazigi, F. Herrera, D. P. Singh, pH-controlled assembly of 3D and 2D zinc-based metal-organic frameworks with tetrazole ligands, ACS Omega 3, 801, 2018