Two QMC teams on the hunt for an unconventional kind of superconductor have produced the most compelling evidence to date that they’ve found one. In a pair of papers published in Science and Nature Communications, the teams of Steve Anlage and Johnpierre Paglione have shown that uranium ditelluride displays many of the hallmarks of a topological superconductor—a material that may unlock new ways to build quantum computers and other futuristic devices. See news story by Dina Genkina.
Three QMC-affiliated research teams have been awarded funds to enhance quantum materials research from the $10 million UMD Research Instrumentation Fund, created to support faculty and core facilities through significant investments to replace or upgrade research equipment. Awards include support for a Advanced Thin-Film Deposition Suite (J. Paglione, physics), Single-Crystal X-Ray Instrumentation (E. Rodriguez, chemistry), and an Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Microscope (L. Salamanca-Riba, materials science). Congratulations!! See more details here.
Magnetic field induced superconductivity is a fascinating quantum phenomenon, whose origin is yet to be fully understood. The recently discovered spin triplet superconductor, UTe2, exhibits two such superconducting phases, with the second one reentering in the magnetic field of 45 T and persisting up to 65 T. More surprisingly, in order to induce this superconducting phase, the magnetic field has to be applied in a special angle range, not along any high symmetry crystalline direction. The teams of QMC faculty Nick Butch and Johnpierre Paglione have investigated the evolution of this exotic superconducting phase under pressure, shedding more light on the mechanism of reentrant superconductivity This work has been posted on arXiv.
Congratulations to QMC faculty member Alicia Kollár on her NSF CAREER Award for a proposal aimed at developing a new window into the physics of particles interacting inside of materials. Way to go Alicia! https://jqi.umd.edu/news/kollar-receives-national-science-foundation-career-award