Welcome to the webpage of the Quantum nanophotonics and biosensing team at University of New Mexico's Center for High Technology Materials. Our research lies at the intersection of condensed-matter physics, quantum optics, and biomedical imaging. We specialize in using color centers in diamond as quantum sensors to study nanoscale magnetic phenomena in physical, chemical, and biological systems. We are also developing nanophotonic surfaces for applications ranging from few-photon optical logic to virtual reality.

We are hiring! Postdocs and students interested in our research may contact Victor Acosta, vmacosta@unm.edu.

We are located at CHTM, 1313 Goddard st. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106. Labs: 159B & 171A, Office: 115A

News

  • Optical NMR gyroscope paper
    The lab is involved in a recent preprint:

    A. Jarmola, I. Fescenko, V. M. Acosta, M. W. Doherty, F. K. Fatemi, T. Ivanov, D. Budker, V. S. Malinovsky, "Robust optical readout and characterization of nuclear spin transitions in nitrogen-vacancy ensembles in diamond." arXiv:2001.00109 (2019).

    This work was led by Andrey Jarmola (ODMR Tech) with collaborators at Army Research Lab, Australia National University, and UC Berkeley.
    Posted Jan 7, 2020, 3:28 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Sub-picotesla diamond magnetometer paper
    Postdoc Ilja Fescenko is the lead on our newest preprint:

    I. Fescenko, A. Jarmola, I. Savukov, P. Kehayias, J. Smits, J. Damron, N. Ristoff, N. Mosavian, V. M. Acosta,
    "Diamond magnetometer enhanced by ferrite flux concentrators."         arXiv:1911.05070 (2019). 

    This work is a collaboration with Igor Savukov (Los Alamos), Andrey Jarmola (ODMR Tech), & Pauli Kehayias (Sandia).
    Posted Nov 12, 2019, 8:24 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Yaser receives conference recognition
    Graduate student Yaser Silani was selected as a finalist for the Corbett Prize for his SiV STED work at the International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors in Seattle, July 2019.
    Posted Jul 30, 2019, 2:38 PM by Victor Acosta
  • STED with SiV centers paper
    Our paper on super resolution microscopy with SiV centers is now published: 

    Y. Silani*, F. Hubert*, V. M. Acosta, "Stimulated emission depletion microscopy with diamond silicon vacancy centers."  arXiv
    ACS Photonics, 6 2577 (2019).

    This work was co-led by graduate students Yaser Silani and Forrest Hubert. Related UNM newsroom article here.
    Posted Oct 17, 2019, 5:07 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Josh receives SharedEPR travel grant
    Postdoc Josh Damron is awarded a SharedEPR travel grant to present his microfluidic diamond NMR work at the 2019 Rocky Mountain EPR Conference in Denver, CO in July.
    Posted Jun 11, 2019, 8:42 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Nate Ristoff passes candidacy exam
    Congratulations to Nate who delivered a superb candidacy exam talk and passed with flying colors!
    Posted May 15, 2019, 4:23 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Abdelghani accepts TT faculty position at U Nebraska
    Congratulations to Abdelghani Laraoui who will be moving to a tenure-track Assistant Professor position at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dept. of Mechanical & Materials Engineering in August 2019!
    Posted May 1, 2019, 8:01 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Janis wins two conference awards
    Graduate student Janis Smits has been awarded the Open Readings 2019 award for his presentation on microfluidic diamond NMR at the International Conference for Students of Physics in Vilnius, Lithuania. He also won a best student talk award at the Diamond Photonics conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.
    Posted May 22, 2019, 11:38 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Varifocal achromatic metalens paper
    Our new paper on metasurface optics is now published:

    M. D. Aiello*, A. S. Backer*, A. J. Sapon, J. Smits, J. D. Perreault, P. Llull, V. M. Acosta, "Achromatic varifocal metalens for the visible spectrum." arXiv

    This work was co-lead by our graduate student Max Aiello and research scientist Adam Backer (Sandia National Labs), in collaboration with UNM undergraduate Aryeh Sapon, U Latvia PhD student Janis Smits, and optical scientists John Perreault and Patrick Llull at Google Daydream.
    Posted Oct 17, 2019, 5:10 PM by Victor Acosta
  • 2019 Cottrell Scholar
    Victor is awarded a 2019 Cottrell Scholars award from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement for his project titled: "Hyperpolarization and Detection of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Using Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Diamond." The award is for a combination of NV NMR research and an educational plan for developing a interdisciplinary program in computational optics. The latter is in collaboration with Keith Lidke and others at UNM.

    Press release here and here. Advertisement in Science here.
    Posted Jul 2, 2019, 3:59 PM by Victor Acosta
  • 2D microfluidic NMR paper
    Our paper on microfluidic 2D NMR is now published:

    J. Smits*, J. Damron*, P. Kehayias, A. F. McDowell, N. Mosavian, N. Ristoff, I. Fescenko. A. Laraoui, A. Jarmola, V. M. Acosta, "Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with a microfluidic diamond quantum sensor," Science Advances 5 eaaw7895 (2019).

    -featured in phys.org
    -UNM Newsroom article here (by Mary Beth King)

    This work was led by graduate student Janis Smits and postdoc Josh Damron in collaboration with Andrey Jarmola (ODMR Tech) and Andrew McDowell (NuevoMR).
    Posted Aug 8, 2019, 1:42 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Yaser Silani advances to PhD candidacy
    congrats Yaser on an excellent candidacy exam!
    Posted Dec 11, 2018, 2:50 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Quantum sensing article in ABQ Journal
    The Albuquerque Journal published an article on quantum sensing and computing research efforts here in Albuquerque, including from our lab.
    Posted Dec 11, 2018, 7:53 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Infrared laser magnetometer paper
    Victor is a co-author on a recent publication: "Infrared laser magnetometry with a NV doped diamond intracavity etalon," Optics Express 27, 1706-1717 (2019). This work was lead by Yannick Dumeige (U Rennes) and includes collaborators throughout Europe.
    Posted Jan 23, 2019, 5:09 PM by Victor Acosta
  • NIH (NIBIB) Trailblazer Award
    The lab receives an NIBIB Trailblazer Early Career Investigator award for the project: " Single Cell magnetic microscopy with multicolor superparamagnetic probes." This project is lead by Abdelghani Laraoui, Nate Ristoff, and Nazanin Mosavian, in collaboration with Dale Huber (CINT) and Helen Hathaway (UNM Cell Biology).
    Posted Sep 25, 2018, 6:01 AM by Victor Acosta
  • NSF magnetic nanoparticle project begins
    Led by PI Abdelghani Laraoui, the lab begins a new NSF (DMR) funded project: Objective-first sorting and time resolved diamond magnetic microscopy of superparamagnetic nanoparticles.
    Posted Sep 5, 2018, 12:27 PM by Victor Acosta
  • NIH diamond NMR project begins
    The lab begins a new NIH (NIGMS) funded project Microfluidic Diamond NMR Sensor in collaboration with Andrey Jarmola (ODMR Technologies).
    Posted Sep 5, 2018, 12:21 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Several more patents published in 2018
    Victor is a co-inventor on the following patents published in 2018:
    - J. S. Klein, V. S. Bajaj, V. M. Acosta, J. J. Schwartz, J. D. Thompson, "Biosensor for in vitro detection system and method of use." US Patent 9927442 (2018).
    - V. M. Acosta, J. J. Schwartz, R. N. Mirov, "In vivo analyte detection system." US Patent 9936908 (2018).
    - V. M. Acosta, A. Jarmola, L. Bougas, D. Budker, "Magnetic resonance spectrometer." US Patent 15743527 (2018).
    Posted Aug 16, 2018, 10:20 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Summer conference presentations
    Victor presented the lab's research at the Rocky Mountain EPR conference (Snowbird, UT), the Beckman Symposium (Irvine, CA), the CINT users meeting (Santa Fe, NM) and APS 4-corners meeting (Salt Lake City) in September. Andrey Jarmola gave a talk on behalf of the group at the APES-IES EPR meeting (Brisbane, AU).
    Posted May 24, 2019, 6:35 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Superconductor magnetometry review
    Victor is a co-author on a recent review article "Color centers in diamond as novel probes of superconductivity," Journal of Supercondunctivity and Novel Magnetism 32, 85 (2019). Also available on arxiv. This was a collaboration with numerous experts in the field.
    Posted May 24, 2019, 6:32 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Magnetic imaging of malarial hemozoin
    Postdoc Ilja Fescenko is the lead on our new paper: 

     "Diamond Magnetic Microscopy of Malarial Hemozoin Nanocrystals," 
    Ilja Fescenko, Abdelghani Laraoui, Janis Smits, Nazanin Mosavian, Pauli Kehayias, Jong Seto, Lykourgos Bougas, Andrey Jarmola, and Victor M. Acosta, Phys. Rev. Applied 11, 034029 (2019). 

    This work was a collaboration with biocrystal expert Jong Seto (UCSF) as well as others at UNM and around the world.
    Posted Mar 16, 2019, 5:08 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Google Daydream University Research award
    The lab receives a research award from Google's virtual/augmented reality division (Daydream) for a project titled "Tunable sub-micron-thick metasurfaces for VR/AR displays". In addition to lead student Max Aiello, this is a collaboration with co-PI Adam Backer (Sandia NL) and Google optical physicists John Perreault and Patrick Llull.
    Posted Jun 4, 2018, 5:06 PM by Victor Acosta
  • Nazanin wins ENC student travel award
    Graduate student Nazanin Mosavian has won a student travel stipend to attend the 2018 Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference in Orlando, May 2018.
    Posted Mar 1, 2018, 2:39 PM by Victor Acosta
  • NIH retina neuronal imaging project begins
    In collaboration with Igor Savukov, John George, and  other neuroscientists at Los Alamos, we begin a new project, funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, titled "CRCNS: MICROIMAGING/MODELING OF RETINAL RESPONSES MEASURED WITH LASER MAGNETOMETER".
    Posted Sep 18, 2017, 9:37 AM by Victor Acosta
  • Metasurface project highlighted on CARC webpage
    Our metasurface work was featured in a press release by UNM's Center for Advanced Research Computing titled "UNM researchers tackle next generation of VR displays". Aside from lead graduate student Max Aiello, this is a collaboration with Adam Backer (Sandia), John Perreault (Google VR), and Patrick Llullo (Google VR).
    Posted Sep 6, 2017, 9:03 AM by Victor Acosta
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