About

Dane W. deQuilettes

Currently, I am a Research Scientist at MIT Lincoln Laboratory working in the Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems Group and a Principal Investigator in the Center for Quantum Engineering at MIT. I use plasma chemistry to make some of the highest-quality diamonds in the world for applications in quantum sensing and communication.

My background spans materials chemistry as well as applied physics, where I have always been fascinated by science as a tool to better understand the world and also develop technologies that have a positive impact on humanity. For the last decade, my research has focused on the synthesis, characterization, and control of defects in semiconductors (i.e. metal halide perovskites and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond) to help solve grand challenges in energy and quantum science. These interests have led me to pinpointing the locations of defects in polycrystalline perovskite materials for the first time (deQuilettes et al. Science, 2015), removing these defects to make some of the most emissive semiconductors to date (Nature Energy, 2024 and Nature Photonics, 2018), all the way to controlling defect doping levels (i.e. ppb) in diamond to help achieve new magnetometer performance records. My hope is that this work leads to more efficient solar energy conversion as well as the next generation of quantum sensors for energy and biological applications.

I am a first-generation college student that completed my B.S. in Chemistry at Pepperdine University and my Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Washington as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. From UW, I moved to MIT to work in Vladimir Bulovic’s lab as a postdoc where I began to study quantum materials and served as a Team Lead for the GridEdge Solar Research Program. I have been honored to receive recognition as 1 of the 11 “Rising Stars” in the Natural Sciences by Nature Index and Scientific American, to be awarded the IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists, and listed to Forbes 30 under 30 for my work in developing and understanding novel materials for solar energy conversion.

Feel free to reach out at danedeq@mit.edu – I use he/his/him pronouns.

Google Scholar

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

deQuilettes, D.W.; Yoo, J.J.; Brenes, R.; Kosasih, F.U.; Laitz, M.; Dou, B.D.; Graham, D.J.; Ho, K.; Shin, S.S.; Ducati, C.; Bawendi, M.; Bulović, V. “Reduced Recombination via Tunable Surface Fields in Perovskite Solar Cells.” Nature Energy, 2024, 9, 457–466.

deQuilettes, D.W.; Vorpahl, S. M.; Stranks, S.D.; Nagaoka, H.; Eperon, G. E.; Ziffer, M. E.; Snaith, H. J.; Ginger, D.S. “Impact of Microstructure on Local Carrier Lifetime in Perovskite Solar Cells,” Science, 2015, 348 (6235), 683-686.

deQuilettes, D.W.; Zhang, W.; Burlakov, V. M.; Graham, D.J.; Leijtens, T.; Osherov, A. Bulović, V.; Snaith, H.J.; Ginger, D.S.; Stranks, S.D. “Photo-induced Halide Redistribution in Organic-Inorganic Perovskite Films,” Nature Communications, 2016, 7 (11683).

^†Co-First Authors: Braly, I.^†; deQuilettes, D.W.^†; Pazos-Outón, L.M.; Burke, S.; Ziffer, M.E.; Ginger, D.S.; Hillhouse, H.W. “Hybrid Perovskite Films Approaching the Radiative Limit with Over 90% Internal Photoluminescence Quantum Efficiency,” Nature Photonics, 2018, 12, 355-361.

deQuilettes, D.W.; Frohna, K.; Emin, D.; Kirchartz, T.; Bulović, V.; Ginger, D.S.; Stranks, S.D. “Charge Carrier Recombination in Halide Perovskites,” Chemical Reviews, 2019, 119, 20, 11007-11019.

deQuilettes, D.W.; Brenes, R.; Laitz, M.; Motes, B.T; Glazov, M.; Bulović, V.“Impact of Photon Recycling, Grain Boundaries, and Non-linear Recombination on Energy Transport in Semiconductors,” ACS Photonics, 2021, 9, 1, 110-122.

deQuilettes, D.W.;Koch, S.; Burke, S. A.; Paranji, R.; Shropshire, A.J.; Ziffer, M.E.; Ginger, D.S. “Photoluminescence Lifetimes Exceeding 8 µs and Quantum Yields Exceeding 30% in Hybrid Perovskite Thin Films by Ligand Passivation,” ACS Energy Letters, 2016, 1, 438-444.

deQuilettes, D.W.; Jariwala, S.; Burke, S.; Ziffer, M.E.; Wang, J.T.-W; Snaith, H.J.; Ginger, D.S. “Tracking Photoexcited Carriers in Hybrid Perovskite Semiconductors: Trap-Dominated Spatial Heterogeneity and Diffusion,” ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (11), 11488-11496.