Faculty

Aashish Clerk

  • Professor of Molecular Engineering in the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
  • Research and Scholarly Interests: Theoretical Quantum Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Optics, Engineered Quantum Systems, Quantum Information
  • Websites: Clerk Group
  • Contact: aaclerk@uchicago.edu
    773.834.4568
  • Office Location:
    Eckhardt Research Center, ERC 289A, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637

Aashish Clerk’s research focuses on understanding complex phenomena in quantum systems that are both strongly driven and subject to dissipation. Such effects are not only interesting from a fundamental perspective, but can also enable quantum technologies to transcend the limitations of purely classical systems. His group’s work intersects the fields of condensed matter physics, quantum optics, and quantum information.

Prof. Clerk received his B.Sc. in 1996 from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 2001. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University until 2004 when he joined the faculty at McGill University and concurrently served as a Canada Research Chair. Clerk joined the University of Chicago as a faculty member in 2017.

Clerk’s honors include being appointed a Simons Investigator in Theoretical Physics in 2020, as well as receiving a Sloan Research Fellowship, an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from Canada’s National Science and Engineering Research Council, the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics from the Royal Society of Canada, and a Simons Foundation Fellowship in Theoretical Physics.

The Clerk group investigates a variety of issues in driven dissipative quantum physics. This includes questions related to quantum sensing, quantum control, and quantum transduction, as well as new kinds of topological and many-body phenomena.  The group has close collaborations with a number of leading experimental groups working on a diverse range of physical platforms. These include superconducting quantum circuits, quantum optomechanical systems, and more general quantum optical systems.

Quantum spin probe of single charge dynamics (PRL Editors' Suggestion)
J. C. Marcks, M. Onizhuk, Y.-X. Wang, Y. Zhu, Y. Jin, B. S. Soloway, M. Fukami, N. Delegan, F. J. Heremans, A. A. Clerk, G. Galli, D. D. Awschalom. Quantum spin probe of single charge dynamics. 2024. Phys. Rev. Let. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.130802

Anomalous Purcell decay of strongly driven inhomogeneous emitters coupled to a cavity
M. T. Solomon, M. Koppenhöfer, C. Ji, G. Grant, I. Masiulionis, S. E. Sullivan, F. J. Heremans, S. Guha, D. D. Awschalom, A. A. Clerk, A. M. Dibos. Anomalous Purcell decay of strongly driven inhomogeneous emitters coupled to a cavity. 2024. Optica Quantum 2, 196-205. 10.1364/OPTICAQ.520843

Guiding Diamond Spin Qubit Growth with Computational Methods
J. C. Marcks, M. Onizhuk, N. Delegan, Y.-X. Wang, M. Fukami, M. Watts, A. A. Clerk, F. J. Heremans, G. Galli, D. D. Awschalom. Guiding Diamond Spin Qubit Growth with Computational Methods. 2023. Phys. Rev. Mat. 8, 026204. 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.026204

Detecting spin bath polarization with quantum quench phase shifts of single spins in diamond
P. C. Jerger, Y. Wang, M. Onizhuk, B. S. Soloway, M. T. Solomon, C. Egerstrom, F. J. Heremans, G. Galli, A. A. Clerk, D. D. Awschalom. Detecting spin bath polarization with quantum quench phase shifts of single spins in diamond. 2023. PRX Quantum 4, 040315. 10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.040315

A Roadmap for Quantum Interconnects
D. D. Awschalom, H. Bernien, R. Brown, A. Clerk, E. Chitambar, A. Dibos, J. Dionne, M. Eriksson, B. Fefferman, G. Fuchs, et al. A Roadmap for Quantum Interconnects. United States. 2022. https://doi.org/10.2172/1900586. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1900586.

Heisenberg-Limited Spin Squeezing via Bosonic Parametric Driving
P. Groszkowski, H.-K. Lau, C. Leroux, L. C. G. Govia and A. A. Clerk. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 203601 (2020).

Hidden time-reversal symmetry, quantum detailed balance and exact solutions of driven-dissipative quantum systems
D. Roberts, A. Lingenfelter and A. A. Clerk. arXiv:2011.02148 (2020).

Exponentially-enhanced quantum sensing with non-Hermitian lattice dynamics
A. McDonald and A. A. Clerk. Nature Comm. 11, 5382 (2020)

Dynamical Mean-Field Theory for Open Markovian Quantum Many Body Systems
O. Scarlatella, A. A. Clerk, R. Fazio, M. Schiro. arXiv:2008.02563 (2020).

Spectral characterization of non-Gaussian quantum noise: Keldysh approach and application to photon shot noise
Y. Wang and A. A. Clerk. Phys. Rev. Research 2, 033196 (2020).

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