Condensed Matter/Materials & Biological Physics Seminar with Johannes Pollanen on Synthetic Quantum Systems

Our research group at MSU, the Laboratory for Hybrid Quantum Systems, works on wide variety of experiments at the boundary of condensed matter physics (CMP) and quantum information science (QIS) to create hybrid/synthetic quantum systems with novel properties and/or functionality. The ability to imagine and create these types of quantum systems, which bring together seemingly disparate (but interacting) degrees of freedom, brings the exciting possibility of unexpected discoveries and new directions in fundamental and applied quantum  research in systems ranging from many-electron fluids & solids to tailor-made artificial atoms based on superconducting circuits. In this talk I will describe our work on creating novel hybrid quantum systems that integrate superconducting qubits + superfluids, electrons trapped above the surface of liquid helium, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. By leveraging the precision experimental techniques of QIS our experiments reveal insights into the coherence properties of established superconducting qubit systems & single electron devices and  potential methods for improving their coherence. Our experiments also open the door to developing altogether new qubits and high-frequency SAW devices based on electrons trapped on the surface of superfluid helium as well as new regimes of circuit quantum optics using piezo-phonons.