Speaker: Yong Chen (Purdue)

Host: Chandan Setty

Title: Quantum Materials meet Quantum Information

Abstract: We are in the middle of the ¨second quantum revolution¨ enabled by quantum information science, promising to revolutionize how we acquire, transmit, and process information. At the heart of such disruptive quantum technologies as quantum sensing, communication, and computing is the physical realization of "qubits" whose quantum states can be individually controlled. To unlock the potential of quantum technologies, it is imperative to identify and develop ¨chip-compatible¨ materials that can serve as platforms for such controllable atom-like qubits and quantum information. In this talk, we will discuss emerging quantum materials --- particularly in the space of 2D/layered and topological materials --- and their promising roles in quantum information science and technology. The first major step toward solid state quantum technologies is to “make a solid behave as an atom” --- creating controllable atom-like objects (two/few-level systems) such as superconducting qubits and defect-based spin qubits and quantum emitters. Another emerging experimental frontier, interfacing “quantum materials” and “quantum information”, is to use qubit-like probes and related tools to perform new ways of measurements such as “quantum sensing” on quantum materials, that can characterize the non-local/ many-body entanglement and detect exotic quasiparticles (such as non-Abelian anyons) that in turn may enable novel quantum information applications.

Bio: Yong P. Chen received his BSc and MSc degrees in mathematics from Xi'an Jiaotong University and MIT respectively, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University. After a postdoc in physics and nanotechnology at Rice University, he joined the faculty of Purdue University in 2007 and is currently the Karl Lark-Horovitz Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of NSF Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT), an Industry-University-Cooperative-Research-Center (IUCRC). He has also been a Villum Investigator and part-time Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, and a principal investigator at Advanced Institute for Materials Research in Tohoku University, Japan. His group works on a wide range of quantum matters in both solid state and AMO physics, involving graphene, topological insulators, 2D materials, and cold atoms & molecules, and their potential applications. He has received NSF CAREER Award, Young Investigator Awards from ACS and DOD, IBM Faculty Award, Masao Horiba Award, Herbert McCoy Award, and is a Fellow of both APS and AAAS.