| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Materials and Processes for Quantum Information, Computing and Science Focus Topic | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session QS-TuM |
| Session: | AVS Quantum Science (ALL INVITED SESSION) |
| Presenter: | Yong P. Chen, Purdue University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Spin is one of the most fundamental quantum properties of particles. In this talk I will describe our experimental studies of “spin-helical” particles (analogous to neutrinos with spin locked to the momentum, but for electrons and atoms) as a powerful platform to realize novel quantum matter and enable new applications in quantum technologies --- such asquantum information, quantum energy, and even quantum chemistry. In particular, we have demonstrated spin-helical electrons [1,2] on the surface of “topological insulators” (TI) and discovered a “topological spin battery” [3], opening the possibility to electrically induce and readout a nuclear and electronic spin polarization with exceptionally long lifetime --- which we present as a remarkable demonstration of the “topological protection” unique to TI. We further observe unusual behaviors in superconducting Josephson junctions and SQUIDs made out of our TIs [4,5,6], paving the way for using such spin-helical electrons to realize “topological superconductor” proposed to harbor “majorana fermions” that could enable scalable, topologically-protected quantum computing. Time permits, I may also describe an experiment on spin-helical (bosonic) atoms, realized using light-matter interaction to engineer “synthetic” spin orbit coupling and gauge fields on laser-cooled 87Rb atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We demonstrate a new “interferometric” approach for quantum control of chemical reactions (in our case photoassociation of two atoms into a molecule) by preparing reactants in spin superpositions [7]. It would be interesting to extend such ideas and explore such "quantum beam" experiments the context of surface chemistry and catalysis for example.
Refs: [1] J.Tian et al. Sci. Rep. 5, 14293 (2015); [2] J. Tian et al., Nature Comm. 10, 1461 (2019); [3] J.Tian et al., Science Advances 3, e1602531 (2017); [4] Luis A. Jauregui et al., APL 112, 093105 (2018); [5] M.Kayyalha et al., PRL 122, 047003 (2019); [6] M.Kayyalha et al., arXiv:1812.00499; [7] D.Blasing et al., PRL 121, 073202 (2018)