Contact Information
600 S. Mathews Avenue
MC-712
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Interests
Single-molecule biophysics, quantum sensing, microscopy
Research Description
The Backlund lab develops and applies new techniques for molecular sensing and imaging by leveraging tools from quantum information science and engineering. Approaches include nanoscale magnetic resonance using quantum defects in diamond and novel methods in single-molecule optical microscopy with designs informed by quantum metrological bounds. We apply our tools to target various systems of importance in biophysics, materials science, and chemistry. Amyloid proteins are of special biophysical interest.
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 2016-2020
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2016
B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 2010
Awards and Honors
Robert and Marvel Kirby Stanford Graduate Fellow, 2010-2013
Erich O. and Elly M. Saegebarth Prize, 2010
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Recent Publications
Dingilian, A. I., Kurella, A., Chamria, D., Mitchell, C. S., Dhruva, D., Durden, D. J., & Backlund, M. P. (2026). Quantifying classical and quantum bounds for resolving closely spaced, non-interacting, simultaneously emitting dipole sources in optical microscopy. Journal of Chemical Physics, 164(9), Article 094201. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0316287
Das, A. K., Hegde, S., Woods, T. J., Wani, V. S., & Backlund, M. P. (2025). Direct Observation of Three Chiral Conformers of an Atomically Precise Metal Nanoparticle. Nano letters, 25(18), 7491-7498. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01154
Hegde, S., Durden, D. J., Ajayakumar, L. P., Sivakumar, R., & Backlund, M. P. (2025). Quantum sensing in the fractional Fourier domain. Physical Review Applied, 23(2), Article 024035. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.024035
Snyder, P. J., Allard, V., Bhagia, S., Farahi, R. H., Lereu, A. L., Backlund, M. P., & Passian, A. (2025). Hemicellulose Modulates Nanoscale Lignin Architecture in Synthetic Plant Cell Walls. ACS Nano, 19(47), 40364-40382. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c09006
Mitchell, C. S., & Backlund, M. P. (2023). Tight information bounds for spontaneous-emission-lifetime resolution of quantum sources with varied spectral purity. Physical Review A, 108(2), Article 023712. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.023712