About

Lee C. Bassett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His professional contact details include an office located in 362 Levine Hall, with a phone number of (215) 573-7565 and email address lbassett@seas.upenn.edu. The page lists numerous group members under his leadership, including Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars working on topics such as nanophotonics, quantum optics, metamaterials, low-dimensional materials, quantum computation, diamond NV- centers, spin centers in colloidal materials, photonic integration, and quantum sensing. This indicates that Professor Bassett's research group focuses on advanced topics in electrical engineering and systems engineering, particularly in areas related to quantum information processing, nanophotonics, and quantum materials. However, the page text does not provide a detailed narrative biography or explicit description of his research background, key contributions, or career history beyond his current position and group composition.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Physics
• Materials science
• Quantum mechanics
• Optoelectronics
• Political Science
• Condensed matter physics
• Psychology
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Algorithm
• Law
• Library science
• Social psychology
• Atomic physics

Selected publications

• Site-selective enhancement of Eu emission in delta-doped GaN

  Applied Physics Letters · 2026-03-16

  articleOpen access

  Europium-doped gallium nitride (GaN:Eu) is a promising platform for classical and quantum optoelectronic applications. When grown using organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy, the dominant red emission from Eu exhibits an inhomogeneous photoluminescence (PL) spectrum due to contributions from several nonequivalent incorporation sites that can be distinguished with combined excitation-emission spectroscopy. Energy transfer from the GaN bandgap to the majority site is inefficient, limiting the performance of GaN:Eu light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and resulting in an inhomogeneous emission spectrum dominated by disproportionate contributions from minority sites. In this work, we use site-selective spectroscopy to characterize the photoluminescence properties of delta-doped structures with alternating doped and undoped layers of varying thicknesses and demonstrate that they selectively enhance emission from the majority site when compared to uniformly doped samples. Samples with 2- and 10-nm doped layers show much greater PL intensity per Eu concentration as well as more efficient energy transfer to the majority site, which are both highly desirable for creating power-efficient LEDs. Meanwhile, a sample with 1-nm doped layers shows emission only from the majority site, resulting in a narrow, homogeneous emission spectrum that is desirable for quantum technologies. This utilization of delta-doping has the potential to be broadly applicable for engineering desirable defect properties in rare-earth doped semiconductors.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Correlated Structural and Optical Characterization of Hexagonal Boron Nitride

  ACS Nano · 2025-02-21 · 4 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) plays a central role in nanoelectronics and nanophotonics. Moreover, hBN hosts room-temperature quantum emitters and optically addressable spins, making the material promising for quantum sensing and photonics. Despite significant investigation of the optical and structural properties of hBN, the role of contamination at surfaces and interfaces remains unexplored. We prepare hBN samples that are compatible with confocal photoluminescence (PL) microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic-force microscopy (AFM), and we use those techniques to quantitatively investigate correlations between fluorescent emission, flake morphology, and surface residue. We find that the microscopy techniques themselves induce changes in hBN's optical activity and residue morphology: PL measurements induce photobleaching, whereas TEM measurements alter surface residue and emission characteristics. We also study the effects of common treatments─annealing and oxygen plasma cleaning─on the structure and optical activity of hBN. The methods can be broadly applied to study two-dimensional materials, and the results illustrate the importance of correlative studies to elucidate factors that influence hBN's structural and optical properties.

  PublisherDOI

• Mechanical prions as self-assembling microstructures

  Newton · 2025-05-08 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  tabletop model capable of undergoing prion- like conformational change

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optical and spin dynamics of visible quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride

  2025-03-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• High-Performance Near-Infrared Quantum Emission from Color Centers in hBN

  ArXiv.org · 2025-12-18

  preprintOpen access

  Color centers hosted in hexagonal boron nitride have emerged as a highly promising platform for single-photon emission and spin-photon technologies relevant to quantum communication and quantum networking. As a wide-bandgap van der Waals material, hBN can host optically active quantum defects across a broad spectral range. Here, we demonstrate a simple and scalable oxygen-plasma process that reproducibly creates single quantum emitters in hBN with blinking-free zero-phonon lines spanning the near-infrared from 700 up to 971 nm. These emitters combine MHz-level brightness, single-photon purity up to 99.9\%, and ultranarrow cryogenic linewidths down to 2.7~GHz under quasi-resonant excitation, placing them in a particularly attractive regime for quantum photonics. Photostability measurements further reveal resistance to photobleaching, sub-nm spectral stability over long timescales, and near-shot-noise-limited intensity fluctuations. Analysis of the phonon sidebands shows weak vibronic coupling and ZPL-dominated emission, with Debye--Waller factors approaching 50\%. Control experiments together with EDS elemental mapping support oxygen incorporation as a necessary ingredient in activating the NIR emitter population, while first-principles calculations identify O$_N$V$_N$ and O$_N$V$_N$H as the leading defect candidates. These results establish a high-performance NIR quantum-emitter platform in hBN for free-space quantum networking and future integrated quantum-photonic architectures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Theory of optically detected magnetic resonance of spin centers in hexagonal boron nitride

  2025-03-19

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Single-gate, multipartite entanglement on a room-temperature quantum register

  ArXiv.org · 2025-08-11 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Multipartite entanglement is an essential aspect of quantum systems, needed to execute quantum algorithms, implement error correction, and achieve quantum-enhanced sensing. In solid-state quantum registers such nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, entangled states are typically created using sequential, pairwise gates between the central electron and individual nuclear qubits. This sequential approach is slow and suffers from crosstalk errors. Here, we demonstrate a parallelized multi-qubit entangling gate to generate a four-qubit GHZ state using a room-temperature NV center in only 14.8 $μ$s $-$ 10 times faster than using sequences of two-qubit gates and close to the fundamental limit set by the hyperfine coupling frequencies. Parallel three-qubit gates are also realized with all nuclear-qubit subsets. The entangled states are verified by measuring multiple quantum coherences. The four-qubit parallel gate has a fidelity of 0.92(4), whereas the sequential four-qubit gate fidelity is only 0.69(3). The approach is generalizable to other solid-state platforms, and it lays the foundation for scalable generation and control of entanglement in practical devices.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Room-Temperature Quantum Emission from Cu_Zn–V_S Defects in ZnS:Cu Colloidal Nanocrystals

  ACS Nano · 2025-06-05 · 3 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  We report room-temperature observations of CuZn–VS quantum emitters in individual ZnS:Cu nanocrystals (NCs). Using time-gated imaging, we isolate the distinct ∼3-μs-long, red photoluminescence (PL) emission of CuZn–VS defects, enabling their precise identification and statistical characterization. The emitters exhibit distinct blinking and photon antibunching, consistent with individual NCs containing two to four CuZn–VS defects. The quantum emitters’ PL spectra show a pronounced blue shift compared to NC dispersions, likely due to photochemical and charging effects. Emission polarization measurements of quantum emitters are consistent with a σ-character optical dipole transition and the symmetry of the CuZn–VS defect. These observations motivate further investigation of CuZn–VS defects in ZnS NCs for use in quantum technologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Electronic Noise Considerations for Designing Integrated Solid‐State Quantum Memories

  Advanced Quantum Technologies · 2025-02-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract As quantum networks expand and are deployed outside research laboratories, a need arises to design and integrate compact control electronics for each memory node. It is essential to understand the performance requirements for such systems, especially concerning tolerable levels of noise, since these specifications dramatically affect a system's design complexity and cost. Here, using an approach that can be easily generalized across quantum‐hardware platforms, a case study based on nitrogen‐vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is presented. The effects of phase noise and timing jitter in the control system in conjunction are modeled and experimentally verified with the spin qubit's environmental noise. The impact of different phase noise characteristics on the fidelity of dynamical decoupling sequences is also considered. The results demonstrate a procedure to specify design requirements for integrated quantum control signal generators for solid‐state spin qubits, depending on their coherence time, intrinsic noise spectrum, and required fidelity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Room-temperature quantum emission from $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ defects in ZnS:Cu colloidal nanocrystals

  ArXiv.org · 2025-01-21

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We report room-temperature observations of $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ quantum emitters in individual ZnS:Cu nanocrystals (NCs). Using time-gated imaging, we isolate the distinct, $\sim$3-$μ$s-long, red photoluminescence (PL) emission of $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ defects, enabling their precise identification and statistical characterization. The emitters exhibit distinct blinking and photon antibunching, consistent with individual NCs containing two to four $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ defects. The quantum emitters' PL spectra show a pronounced blue shift compared to NC dispersions, likely due to photochemical and charging effects. Emission polarization measurements of quantum emitters are consistent with a $σ$-character optical dipole transition and the symmetry of the $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ defect. These observations motivate further investigation of $\mathrm{Cu_{Zn}}$-$\mathrm{V_{S}}$ defects in ZnS NCs for use in quantum technologies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Coupling Spin, Light, and Charge for Quantum Information Processing and Storage in Diamond

  NSF · $500k · 2016–2021

• RAISE-EQuIP: Chip-Scale Quantum Memories for Practical Quantum Communication Networks

  NSF · $750k · 2018–2022

• DMREF: Collaborative Research: Systematic Discovery of Materials Platforms for Spin-Light Quantum Interfaces

  NSF · $625k · 2019–2024

Frequent coauthors

• David A. Hopper

  38 shared

• Tzu-Yung Huang

  University of Pennsylvania

  34 shared

• D. D. Awschalom

  32 shared

• Bob B. Buckley

  26 shared

• Raj N. Patel

  20 shared

• Greg Calusine

  MIT Lincoln Laboratory

  17 shared

• Peter Clarke

  Texas A&M University

  16 shared

• Philip Hemmer

  16 shared

Labs

• Lee C. Bassett LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical and Systems Engineering

  University of Pennsylvania

  2008

• M.S., Electrical and Systems Engineering

  University of Pennsylvania

  2003

• B.S., Electrical and Systems Engineering

  University of Pennsylvania

  2001