MIT’s Plasma Science & Fusion Center Exploring New Paths to Future Quantum Electronics

(MIT) Jagadeesh Moodera and his group at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center are investigating the effect of ultrathin layered materials coupled with other quantum materials having different properties. The resulting interface could produce a new quantum phenomenon — and new properties of the hybrid system could be unprecedented.
“Surface and interface play pivotal roles in many of the recently discovered quantum phenomena in condensed matter physics,” Moodera points out. “Investigating the complex interface behavior when two quantum systems are coupled is a treasure island to be explored for new discoveries and for advancing the field.”
Moodera’s group has extensive experience studying quantum interfaces, having discovered in 2016 that coupling ultrathin layers of topological insulators (TI) — where electrons flow freely but only on the surface — with ferromagnetic or superconducting layers dramatically affects the behavior of each layer.
New multiyear funding and an equipment grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Army Research Office will support novel work exploring the behavior that arises at the interface of quantum materials.