Jonathan Mar

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Jonathan D. Mar serves as Director of the Quantum Photonics Laboratory (QPL) in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University and Associate Director of the Joint Quantum Centre (JQC) Durham-Newcastle, following positions as Research Scientist at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory and Research Fellow at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University. Awarded a full scholarship by the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, he obtained a PhD in physics from Cambridge University under the supervision of Professor Jeremy J. Baumberg FRS and Dr. David A. Williams, following a BASc in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Mar's research interests are in the optical characterization of solid-state single-photon emitters and spin qubits and their optical coupling to photonic cavities and waveguides for the realization of scalable quantum technologies, including quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum sensing. His research program has been supported by research grants totalling more than $2M from funding bodies such as NSERC, EPSRC, Royal Society, and Sir Henry Royce Institute. His research program has also established strong collaborations with academic, industrial, and government partners in Canada and internationally. Dr. Mar has twice been the recipient of an Inventor's Award from Hitachi Europe Ltd. for his contributions to patents and intellectual property, and has been awarded with Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) for his teaching excellence in higher education.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Quantum technologies; Quantum photonics; Single-photon emitters; Defects in hexagonal boron nitride; Semiconductor quantum dots; Machine learning

SELECTED PAPERS

• M. K. Prasad, V. Babenko, A. W. Tadbier, S. Hofmann, J. P. Goss & J. D. Mar, "Localization of hexagonal boron nitride color centers using patterned dielectric layers on graphene", Applied Physics Letters 129, 163302 (2026).
• S. S. Kaderuppan, J. D. Mar, A. C. Irvine, A. Sharma, M. R. Saifuddin, W. L. E. Wong & W. L. Woo, "Empirical validation of SNR-dependent deep learning architectures for label-free super-resolution in optical microscopy", Nanomaterials 16, 1334 (2026).
• M. K. Prasad, J. P. Goss & J. D. Mar, "Impact of graphene encapsulation on thermodynamics of quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride", Physical Review B 112, 115301 (2025).
• M. K. Prasad, M. P. C. Taverne, C.-C. Huang, J. D. Mar & Y.-L. D. Ho, "Hexagonal boron nitride based photonic quantum technologies", Materials 17, 4122 (2024).
• M. K. Prasad, O. A. Al-Ani, J. P. Goss & J. D. Mar, "Charge transfer due to defects in hexagonal boron nitride/graphene heterostructures: an ab initio study", Physical Review Materials 7, 094003 (2023).
• J. D. Mar, J. J. Baumberg, X. L. Xu, A. C. Irvine & D. A. Williams, "Precise measurements of the dipole moment and polarizability of the neutral exciton and positive trion in a single quantum dot", Physical Review B 95, 201304(R) (2017).
• J. D. Mar, J. J. Baumberg, X. L. Xu, A. C. Irvine & D. A. Williams, "Ultrafast high-fidelity initialization of a quantum-dot spin qubit without magnetic fields", Physical Review B 90, 241303(R) (2014).
• J. D. Mar, X. L. Xu, J. J. Baumberg, F. S. F. Brossard, A. C. Irvine, C. Stanley & D. A. Williams, "Bias-controlled single-electron charging of a self-assembled quantum dot in a two-dimensional-electron-gas-based n-i-Schottky diode", Physical Review B 83, 075306 (2011) [highlighted as Editors' Suggestion].
• J. D. Mar, X. L. Xu, J. S. Sandhu, A. C. Irvine, M. Hopkinson & D. A. Williams, "Electrical control of fine-structure splitting in self-assembled quantum dots for entangled photon pair creation", Applied Physics Letters 97, 221108 (2010).
• X. Xu, I. Toft, R. T. Phillips, J. Mar, K. Hammura & D. A. Williams, "'Plug and play' single-photon sources", Applied Physics Letters 90, 061103 (2007).