Dr. Brian J Pepper

Brian is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow working on various aspects of quantum capacitance detectors, a type of far-IR/THz detector based on superconducting qubits. He was a graduate student in physics at University of California, Santa Barbara, where he worked on microfabrication of optomechanical devices and manipulation of their quantum state. He was an undergraduate student in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he wrote his thesis on spin chains in solid-state NMR for quantum information. In his free time, he practices judo with the Pasadena Kodokan Judo Club, and homebrews beer and mead.


Education: 
  • Ph.D. in Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (2014).
  • M.A. in Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (2010).
  • S.B. in Physics w/ minor in Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008).

Research Interests: 

terahertz radiation, superconducting qubits, MEMS/NEMS devices, optomechanical devices, quantum information


Professional Experience: 
  • NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Superconducting Materials and Devices Group (2014-present). Advisor: Pierre Echternach.
  • Graduate Student Researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara, Institute for Terahertz Science and Technology (2008-2014). Advisor: Dirk Bouwmeester.
  • Teaching Assistant,  University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics. Courses: Electromagnetism I, Quantum Mechanics III, Classical Mechanics I, Digital Electronics (various terms 2008-2013).
  • Undergraduate Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory (2007-2008). Advisor: David Cory.

Selected Awards: 
  • NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship (2014)

Selected Publications: 
  1. F. M. Buters, H. J. Eerkens, K. Heeck, M. J. Weaver, B. Pepper, S. de Man, and D. Bouwmeester. Experimental exploration of the optomechanical attractor diagram and its dynamics. Physical Review A 92(1), 013811, 2015.

  2. H.J. Eerkens, F.M. Buters, M.J. Weaver, B. Pepper, G. Welker, K. Heeck, P. Sonin, S. de Man, and D. Bouwmeester. Optical side-band cooling of a low frequency optomechanical system. Optics Express 23(6), 8014-8020, 2015.
  3. B. Pepper, P. Sonin, E. Jeffrey, H. Eerkens, S. de Man, and D. Bouwmeester. Towards macroscopic superpositions via single-photon optomechanics. In Quantum Information and Coherence, chapter 3, page 65, Springer, 2014.
  4. R. Ghobadi, S. Kumar, B. Pepper, D. Bouwmeester, A.I. Lvovsky, and C. Simon. Optomechanical micro-macro entanglement. Physical Review Letters 112(8), 080503, 2014.
  5. B. Pepper, E. Jeffrey, R. Ghobadi, C. Simon, and D. Bouwmeester. Macroscopic superpositions via nested interferometry: finite temperature and decoherence considerations. New Journal of Physics 14(11), 115025, 2012.
  6. B. Pepper, R. Ghobadi, E. Jeffrey, C. Simon, and D. Bouwmeester. Optomechanical superpositions via nested interferometry. Physical Review Letters 109(2), 023601, 2012.
  7. D. Kleckner, B. Pepper, E. Jeffrey, P. Sonin, S.M. Thon, and D. Bouwmeester. Optomechanical trampoline resonators. Optics Express 19(20), 19708-19716, 2011.
  8. W. Zhang, P. Cappellaro, N. Antler, B. Pepper, D.G. Cory, V.V. Dobrovitski, C. Ramanathan, and L. Viola. NMR multiple quantum coherences in quasi-one-dimensional spin systems: comparison with ideal spin-chain dynamics. Physical Review A 80(5), 052323, 2009.
Address: 
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
Phone: 818-354-1019
Fax Number: 818-354-3482