Communications of the ACM
Scientists Look to Develop Quantum Sensors for Probing Quantum Materials
A new U.S. Department of Energy research center will focus on developing tools that operate on quantum principles. The Center for Quantum Sensing and Quantum Materials brings together experts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, and the University of Illinois-Chicago. It is based at UIUC.
The researchers will work on developing three cutting-edge quantum sensing devices: a scanning qubit microscope; a spectroscopy instrument that takes advantage of pairs of entangled electrons; and an instrument that will probe materials with pairs of photons from SLAC's X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source.
New techniques will allow researchers to see in much greater detail why quantum materials do the weird things they do, paving the way to discovering new quantum materials and inventing even more sensitive probes of their behavior.
The work will focus on understanding the atomic-level processes behind unconventional superconductors that conduct electricity with no resistance at relatively high temperatures; topological insulators, which carry current with no loss along their edges; and strange metals, which superconduct when chilled but have strange properties at higher temperatures.
"This center gives us a chance to create some really new quantum measurement techniques for studying energy-relevant quantum materials," says center director Peter Abbamonte, a professor of physics at UIUC.
From SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
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