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Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the intellectual and emotional
support of the many amazing people that I had the honor of sharing the past
several years of my life with.
First, I would like to thank my fiancée, Doctor Ekaterina Chernobai, for her
never-ending patience and support during these crazy years. Ready for more?
I thank Professor John Martinis for the opportunity to be a member of his
group and for being my research advisor. Working for John and having the chance
to set up a new lab with him has been immensely helpful for me to grow as
a scientist, a team-player, and a person. I owe a lot of insights about project
management, leadership, and, of course, physics to our interactions.
I am very grateful to Assistant Professor Robert McDermott, Doctor Matthias
Steffen, and Doctor Ken Cooper for helping me with my start into the field of
experimental condensed matter physics. Their coaching gave me the solid foundation
on which I was able to build my thesis work while their great sense of humor
helped me survive the beating with a smile.
Without Doctor Haohua Wang this experiment would not have been possible
since his incredible skill and dedication in the cleanroom resulted in the qubit
devices that were the key to demonstrating the violation of the Bell inequality.
I would like to specifically acknowledge Matthew Neeley, whose enthusiasm
and support for LabRAD were instrumental in getting it to the level of quality
at which it runs today. Matthew opened my eyes to the world of programming
beyond Delphi and helped me significantly improve and diversify my skills.
Erik Lucero played an important role in this work as well by always being
ready to fix another blown fuse on the control electronics. His positive attitude
and his love for Chai helped me keep my sanity and stay in touch with reality.
I also thank Radek Bialczak, Aaron O’Connell, Doctor Max Hofheinz, Daniel
Sank, Jim Wenner, and Doctor Martin Weides. Their dedication to the team and
sense of humor helped create a fun, yet extremely productive work environment.
I would like to express my appreciation to the staff of the UCSB Physics
Department, the California NanoSystems Institute, the UCSB Machine Shop, and
the UCSB Cleanroom. The infrastructure they provided was extremely helpful in
efficiently meeting the challenges posed by the different steps of the project.
I also thank Professor Andrew Cleland and Professor Andreas Ludwig for
agreeing to be on my thesis committee and for putting up with my last-minute
delivery of this work. Please accept my apologies.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to my family and friends
without whom I would have surely lost my mind over the course of the last years.
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