A new computational task has been defined and solved over the past 15 years for extended material systems: the analytic fitting of the Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface as a function of nuclear coordinates under the assumption of medium-range interactions, 5 ~ 10 Å. [more]

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) point defects in diamond have emerged as a promising platform for quantum sensing. The electronic spin state of these solid-state qubits can be optically polarised, coherently manipulated with microwave pulses, and read out via their spin-state-dependent photoluminescence. Using this optically detected magnetic resonance method, magnetic signals from a single molecules or spins can be detected. [more]