About this event

Register by May 6 for this free online seminar on atomic-precision etching for quantum devices by Russ Renzas, director of the Nanofabrication Lab in the Davidson Foundation Cleanroom. The lecture is offered by the American Vacuum Society.

The performance of current quantum devices such as superconducting qubits, single photon emitters and quantum sensors is limited in part by losses at surfaces and interfaces. Conventional fabrication using dry etch processes disorders and contaminates surfaces and sidewalls, increasing device loss. We are developing novel atomic layer etch (ALE) processes with reduced interfacial damage. In this talk, we will describe how quantum devices are made, evidence of interfacial loss, the mechanisms and chemistry of ALE and how ALE is already being used to improve quantum device performance.

Renzas is an expert in atomic scale processing and superconducting device fabrication. He joined the University in 2024 and set up the premier multiuser microfabrication facility in Nevada as both facility director and faculty in the Electrical & Biomedical Engineering Department. Before joining the University, Renzas was the quantum technology manager at Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology. He was a Rigetti Computing from 2016 to 2018, where he set up Fab-1 and led teams that delivered Rigetti’s first publicly available quantum processors, increased T1 by 5x, automated Josephson Junction and via testing, and increased superconducting via yield from 0% to 99%.

Renzas earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at UC Berkeley (2010) and his B.S.E. in electrical engineering at Princeton University (2005). He has more than 20 academic publications with more than 4,000 citations and three patents and has given more than 50 seminars on atomic scale processing for quantum device fabrication. His most recent publication represents his first research conducted at the University’s new fabrication facility.

Additional information

• Attendance type: Virtual – No in-person attendance is required.
• Cost: Free
• Event type: Lectures & Seminars