AI-enabled atomic robotic probe to advance quantum material manufacturing

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have pioneered a new methodology of fabricating carbon-based quantum materials at the atomic scale by integrating scanning probe microscopy techniques and deep neural networks. This breakthrough highlights the potential of implementing artificial intelligence at the sub-angstrom scale for enhanced control over atomic manufacturing, benefiting both fundamental research and future applications.

SLAC, Stanford researchers make a new type of quantum material with a dramatic distortion pattern

The resulting distortions are ‘huge’ compared to those in other materials, and represent the first demonstration of the Jahn-Teller effect in a layered material with a flat, planar lattice, like a high-rise building with evenly spaced floors.

Scientists turn single molecule clockwise or counterclockwise on demand

Argonne scientists report they can precisely rotate a single molecule on demand. The key ingredient is a single atom of europium, a rare earth element. It rests at the center of a complex of other atoms and gives the molecule many practical applications.

Study finds nickelate superconductors are intrinsically magnetic

Scientists embedded elementary particles called muons into a nickel oxide superconductor to learn more about its magnetic properties. They discovered very different magnetic behavior than the best known unconventional superconductors, the cuprates, display.

An atomic-scale window into superconductivity paves the way for new quantum materials

Superconductors are materials with no electrical resistance whatsoever, commonly requiring extremely low temperatures. They are used in a wide range of domains, from medical applications to a central role in quantum computers. Superconductivity is caused by specially linked pairs of electrons known as Cooper pairs. So far, the occurrence of Cooper pairs has been measured indirectly macroscopically in bulk, but a new technique developed by researchers at Aalto University and Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the US can detect their occurrence with atomic precision.

Lasers trigger magnetism in atomically thin quantum materials

Researchers discovered that light can trigger a form of magnetism in a normally nonmagnetic material. This magnetism centers on the behavior of electron “spin.” By controlling & aligning electron spin at this level of detail & accuracy, this platform could have applications in quantum computing & simulation.

Experiments confirm a quantum material’s unique response to circularly polarized laser light

SLAC scientists are probing topological insulators with circularly polarized light to reveal their many secrets. These exotic materials have potential for quantum computing and other technologies. A new study discovers that polarized laser light generates a unique signature from the topological surface.

Just by changing its shape, Argonne scientists show they can alter material properties

Argonne scientists have observed that when the shape of a thin film of metal oxide known as titania is confined at the mesoscale, its conductivity increases. This finding demonstrates that nanoscale confinement is a way to control quantum effects.

Layered Graphene with a Twist Displays Unique Quantum Confinement in 2-D

Bilayer graphene with one of the two layers twisted displayed unique resonant electronic behavior. Understanding how electrons move in such 2-D materials could shed light on how to manipulate them for quantum computing and communication.

Quantum Materials Cloak Thermal Radiation

Scientists demonstrated that ultrathin films of samarium nickel oxide can mask the thermal radiation emitted by hot materials. This is due to the material undergoing a gradual transition from insulator to conductor. This study shows that quantum materials such as samarium nickel oxide can manage thermal radiation with potential applications in infrared camouflage, privacy shielding, and heat transfer control.

Opening the gate to the next generation of information processing

Scientists have devised a means of achieving improved information processing with a new technology for effective gate operation. This technology has applications in classical electronics as well as quantum computing, communications and sensing.

Uncovering Hidden Local States in a Quantum Material

States of local broken symmetry at high temperature—observed in several materials, including one with a metal-insulator transition, an iron-based superconductor, and an insulating mineral part of the Earth’s upper mantle—may enable the technologically relevant properties arising at much-lower temperature.

Researchers Find Semimetal That Clings to a Quantum Precipice

In an open access paper published in Science Advances, Johns Hopkins physicists and colleagues at Rice University, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), present experimental evidence of naturally occurring quantum criticality in a material.

New Dual-Beam Microscope Installed at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials

This latest-generation tool, which combines a scanning electron microscope and focused-ion beam, has advanced capabilities for preparing and analyzing nanomaterial samples.

ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin elected Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America

Sergei Kalinin, a scientist and inventor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America professional society.

Argonne scientists help explain phenomenon in hardware that could revolutionize AI

A group of scientists from around the country, including those at Argonne National Laboratory, have discovered a way to make AI-related hardware more efficient and sustainable.

Designing Materials from First Principles with Yuan Ping

The UC Santa Cruz professor uses computing resources at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials to run calculations for quantum information science, spintronics, and energy research.

Pivotal discovery in quantum and classical information processing

Researchers have achieved, for the first time, electronically adjustable interactions between microwaves and a phenomenon in certain magnetic materials called spin waves. This could have application in quantum and classical information processing.

Automating 2-D Material Exfoliation with Suji Park

Park, a staff researcher at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is designing and building an automated system to generate high-quality ultrathin “flakes,” which can be stacked into layered structures that are essentially new materials.

SLAC researchers find evidence for quantum fluctuations near a quantum critical point in a superconductor

Theory suggests that quantum critical points may be analogous to black holes as places where all sorts of strange phenomena can exist in a quantum material. Now scientists say that they have found strong evidence that QCPs and their associated fluctuations exist in a cuprate superconductor.

Brookhaven Lab to Lead Quantum Research Center

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has selected Brookhaven National Laboratory to lead one of five National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. Through hardware-software co-design, the center—called the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage—will advance quantum computing.

2D Electronics Get an Atomic Tuneup

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have demonstrated a new technique that could improve the performance of atomically thin semiconductors for next-generation electronics such as optoelectronics, thermoelectrics, and sensors.

Quantum Materials Quest Could Benefit From Graphene That Buckles

Graphene, an extremely thin two-dimensional layer of the graphite used in pencils, buckles when cooled while attached to a flat surface, resulting in beautiful pucker patterns that could benefit the search for novel quantum materials and superconductors, according to Rutgers-led research in the journal Nature. Quantum materials host strongly interacting electrons with special properties, such as entangled trajectories, that could provide building blocks for super-fast quantum computers. They also can become superconductors that could slash energy consumption by making power transmission and electronic devices more efficient.

Scientists Dive Deep Into Hidden World of Quantum States

A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a technique that could lead to new electronic materials that surpass the limitations imposed by Moore’s Law.

Using chaos as a tool, scientists discover new method of making 3D-heterostructured materials

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and their collaborators from Iowa State University have developed a new approach for generating layered, difficult-to-combine, heterostructured solids. Heterostructured materials, composed of layers of dissimilar building blocks display unique electronic transport and magnetic properties that are governed by quantum interactions between their structurally different building blocks, and open new avenues for electronic and energy applications.