Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) and collaborators have discovered a groundbreaking way to control superconductivity—an essential phenomenon for developing more energy-efficient technologies and quantum computing—by simply twisting atomically thin layers within a layered device. By adjusting the twist angle, they were able to finely tune the “superconducting gap,” which plays a key role in the behavior of these materials. The research was published in Nature Physics.

A research team led by Professor Sun Qing-Feng in colloboration with Professor He Lin’s research group from Beijing Normal University has achieved orbital hybridization in graphene-based artificial atoms for the first time. Their findings, entitled “Orbital hybridization in graphene-based artificial atoms” was published in Nature. This work marks a significant milestone in the field of quantum physics and materials science, bridging the gap between artificial and real atomic behaviors.

Scientists at the Universities of Basel and Cologne have revealed a key superconducting effect in topological insulator nanowires. Their findings bring topological insulator nanowires closer to serving as the foundation for stable, next-generation quantum bits (qubits).

From 2035, the Einstein Telescope will be able to study gravitational waves with unprecedented accuracy. For the telescope, researchers from Jena have manufactured highly sensitive sensors made entirely of glass for the first time.

University of Texas at Dallas scientists are investigating how structures made from several layers of graphene stack up in terms of their fundamental physics and their potential as reconfigurable semiconductors for advanced electronics.

At TU Wien (Vienna), methods are being developed to extract valuable substances from biomass – and quantum cascade lasers offer some very interesting new possibilities.

By taking two flakes of special materials that are just one atom thick and twisting them at high angles, researchers at the University of Rochester have unlocked unique optical properties that could be used in quantum computers and other quantum technologies. In a new study published in Nano Letters, the researchers show that precisely layering nano-thin materials creates excitons—essentially, artificial atoms—that can act as quantum information bits, or qubits.

In their ongoing efforts to push the boundaries of quantum possibilities, physicists at WashU have created a new type of “time crystal,” a novel phase of matter that defies common perceptions of motion and time.

Sensing and communication systems based on quantum-mechanical phenomena can greatly outperform today’s systems, in terms of accuracy and reliability, and are considered a pivotal part of developing next-generation networks. Developing quantum information and decision systems that come close to meeting the theoretical quantum advantages has been a longstanding challenge. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and the University of Ferrara (UniFe) in Italy has developed a framework that could open up new ways of pushing such quantum systems all the way to their fundamental limits.

Physicists at the University of Cologne have taken an important step forward in the pursuit of topological quantum computing by demonstrating the first-ever observation of Crossed Andreev Reflection (CAR) in topological insulator (TI) nanowires. This finding, published under the title ‘Long-range crossed Andreev reflection in topological insulator nanowires proximitized by a superconductor’ in Nature Physics, deepens our understanding of superconducting effects in these materials, which is essential for realizing robust quantum bits (qubits) based on Majorana zero-modes in the TI platform — a major goal of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Matter and Light for Quantum Computing’ (ML4Q).