Cornell’s Ithaca campus is home to a broad range of investigations into the quantum-mechanical nature of our world and universe, as well as the study of how to harness effects that are uniquely quantum mechanical for producing new technology in computing, communication, and sensing.
This website serves as a central source of information about who is working on quantum science and engineering at Cornell, what research areas we cover, and what quantum-related events are taking place.
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News and Breakthroughs
Revealing the superconducting limit of ‘magic’ material
Graphene is a simple material containing only a single layer of carbon atoms, but when two sheets of it are stacked together and offset at a slight angle, this twisted bilayer material produces numerous intriguing effects, notably superconductivity.
Now Cornell researchers are making headway into understanding how the material achieves this state by identifying its highest achievable superconducting temperature – 60 Kelvin. The finding is mathematically exact, a rare feat in the field, and is spurring new insights into the factors that fundamentally control superconductivity.
“Looking ahead, this paves the way for understanding what are the possible degrees of freedom that one should try to control and optimize in order to enhance the tendency towards superconductivity in these two-dimensional material platforms,” said Debanjan Chowdhury, the Joyce A. Yelencsics Rosevear ’65 and Frederick M. Rosevear ’64 Assistant Professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).
Hidden structural states discovered in inorganic nanoclusters
Cornell researchers have uncovered hidden – and perplexing – states in a nanomaterial as it changes its atomic structure, a discovery that could advance materials with tailored properties for renewable energy and quantum computing, among other applications.
The research, published in print Oct. 8 in the journal ACS Nano, is the first to reveal intermediate states in cadmium sulfide nanoparticles as they isomerize, changing from one atomic form to another while keeping their chemical composition.
“Think of it as a Rubik’s Cube – we only knew about the final organized state, but now we know there are multiple middle arrangements before that final end state,” said Richard D. Robinson, associate professor of materials science and engineering and senior author of the study.
Cornell engineers key to multiple federal microelectronics projects
Cornell Engineering-led projects designed to accelerate research into quantum and communications leap-ahead technologies – innovations that enable significant advances over current systems – received significant support from the U.S. Department of Defense, officials with the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH) recently announced.
NORDTECH is a regional consortium of government labs, defense companies, academic institutions, and technology manufacturing organizations in New York state and one of eight hubs composing the U.S. Microelectronics Commons program. Of the four federal awards totaling more than $30 million that NORDTECH announced on Sept. 18, three involve critical participation from Cornell Engineering faculty.
If you’re working on quantum research at Cornell and would like to contribute material to this website, please email quantum@cornell.edu.