Prof. Elias Marchetti

Biography

Elias Marchetti joined Veyra Institute as a Veyra Fellow in 2013 and was appointed to a full professorship in 2019. He received his PhD in quantum optics and atomic physics from the Orveld Technical University in 2011, with a dissertation on cavity-QED implementations of optomechanical sensing at the standard quantum limit. His undergraduate studies in physics were completed with first-class honors at Lesthorpe College in 2007. Before arriving at Veyra he held a junior fellowship at the Hardenfeld Center for Applied Physics.

Marchetti's research program sits at the intersection of quantum optics, precision metrology, and nanofabrication. His group develops atom-interferometric inertial sensors, optomechanical resonators for gravitational gradiometry, and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center magnetometers — all with an eye toward applications in geophysical prospecting, navigation, and fundamental tests of gravity. A key collaboration with Dr. Sora Veld's Integrated Photonics Lab has yielded compact photonic readout modules that make NV-center devices portable. The group operates two dilution-refrigerator setups for millikelvin quantum-optomechanics experiments housed in the Calder Mesa Building D sub-basement laboratory.

He has published 52 peer-reviewed papers, holds two patents on sensor architectures licensed to an instrumentation company through the Institute's Patent & IP Services, and has been a principal investigator on funded programs totalling 5.1 million cr. He serves on the advisory board of the International Quantum Sensing Consortium and is an elected fellow of the Veyra Academy of Applied Sciences. He teaches the graduate course Quantum Metrology: Foundations and Devices.

Research interests

Selected publications

1. Marchetti E, Lemos B, Veld S. "Photonic-integrated NV-center vector magnetometer operating at room temperature." Physical Review Applied, 21(3): 034019, 2024. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2404
2. Veld S, Marchetti E, Obi K. "On-chip generation and routing of time-bin entangled photon pairs for quantum key distribution." Nature Photonics and Quantum Optics, 8: 44–51, 2023. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2319
3. Marchetti E, Santos D, Kang Y. "Sub-Heisenberg phase estimation with optical cat states in a fiber-loop interferometer." Physical Review Letters (Applied), 130(12): 120801, 2023. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2322
4. Lemos B, Marchetti E. "Millikelvin optomechanical resonators in the strong-coupling regime: characterization and noise floor." New Journal of Physics (Quantum Devices), 24: 093028, 2022. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2213
5. Marchetti E, Halmstad L, Santos D. "Atom-interferometric gravity gradiometer with differential phase readout below 50 E/√Hz." Nature Physics (Veyra ed.), 17: 880–886, 2021. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2111
6. Marchetti E. "Quantum backaction evasion in a dispersively coupled optomechanical array." Physical Review X (Veyra ed.), 8(4): 041015, 2018. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-1804

Current group members

Postdoctoral researchers

• Dr. Bruno Lemos — millikelvin optomechanics and quantum-limited force sensing
• Dr. Yuna Kang — NV-center diamond preparation and pulsed quantum control

Doctoral students

• Diego Santos — optical cat-state generation for sub-Heisenberg metrology (Year 4)
• Priya Nair — atom-chip sources for portable inertial sensors (Year 3)
• Tobias Graff — dissipative quantum sensing protocols with spin squeezed states (Year 2)
• Elif Aytaç — integrated photonic readout for NV magnetometer arrays (Year 1)