Cristian Bonato

Our research focuses on harnessing individual spins in semiconducting materials to develop quantum technologies for secure communication and nanoscale sensing. Our goal is to enhance the capabilities of quantum spintronic devices by integrating spins with different functionalities (micro-electronics, integrated photonics, advanced signal processing and machine learning). We expect our devices to find applications in high-resolution nanoscale magnetic sensing, pushing magnetic resonance detection down to the level of individual nuclear spins, and in exteding the range of secure quantum communication networks through the development of quantum repeaters.

Cristian Bonato is a Professor at Heriot-Watt University, where he co-leads the Quantum Photonics Laboratory. He currently holds an EPSRC Early-Career fellowship (2019-2024) and is the Principal Investigator for Heriot-Watt's Quantum Magnetometry Facility.

He has been awarded a MSc in Physics (2004) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (2008), both from the University of Padua (Italy). Before joining Heriot-Watt as Assistant Professor in 2016, he has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Leiden Institute of Physics (with Dirk Bouwmeester on semiconductor cavity-QED) and at the Technical University of Delft (with Ronald Hanson on spin control with nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond).