Novel Topological and Qubit Materials Platforms Created by Engineered hBN Substrates
Abstract
We shall study functional van der Waals (vdW) material systems created by their coupling to engineered hBN substrates, with particular relevance to advancing superconducting quantum technologies in the near future. Using the hBN-patterning techniques developed by our team, we will couple several leading 2D materials – e.g. graphene, NbSe2 and NbS2 – onto a corrugated hBN surface that imposes a designed strain texture in the thin films. The vector potential thus created results in a periodic pseudo-magnetic field which may modify the band structure, transport of charge carriers, and, in the case of 2D superconductors, superconducting characteristics. The designed strain profile also provides a new means to lift intrinsic degeneracies within 2D materials by symmetry-breaking, which enables one to access further the electronic structures of vdW materials. The anticipated manifestations may include- band structure modifications, novel superinductors made with strained 2D superconductors, and topological phases in various 2D materials. We will also explore patterned hBN substrates with a step-like height profile consisting of a region of thin (<2 nm) hBN as tunneling barrier and a thicker portion (tens of nm) as dielectric. This hBN structure will be used to create a vdW-based transmon qubit with independently tunable qubit parameters (EJ and EC) and greatly reduced form factors. The proposed materials systems will be incorporated into hybrid superconducting circuits that will enable us to probe these novel phenomena using both DC transport and microwave circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) techniques. The proposed exploration will open a new avenue – strain-substrate engineering – to creating novel vdW-based material platforms suitable for studying fundamental physics and advancing superconducting quantum computing technologies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 10, 2022
- Source ID
- FA23862114058XX0
Entities
People
- William D Oliver
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- United States Air Force