Research Areas

Quantum computers could solve some types of problems much faster than current computers—and answer some that today’s computers simply cannot. Because they naturally process multiple possibilities in parallel, they could accelerate searches for new pharmaceuticals, improve batteries and solar cells, and find more environmentally friendly ways to make chemicals.

The keen sensitivity of quantum systems to the tiniest changes in their environment, including temperature, magnetism, and noise, make them perfect sensors. Quantum sensors might be able to find hidden underground oil pockets, improve earthquake monitoring, unravel the structure of single molecules or peek at the dynamics of cellular proteins.

Condensed Matter Physics—the physics of liquids and solids—explores the exotic behaviors that emerge when many quantum-mechanical particles interact with one another. Exciting theoretical questions range from the origins of high-temperature superconductivity to properties of topological quantum materials and beyond. While many experimental efforts aim to validate these theoretical models, condensed matter techniques have applications across quantum science, from device development and information processing to quantum simulation.

Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics has its origins in spectroscopy, a technique for analyzing light at specific wavelengths, and has produced an extremely exciting set of tools for creating and probing many of today’s most exciting quantum systems.

Quantum Information Science explores how computation, along with the storage and transmission of information, change once quantum effects come into play. This includes theoretical topics such as computation models and error correction, as well as experimental topics such as practical implementations of quantum computers in semiconducting, superconducting, and the manipulation of atoms under ultracold conditions.

Quantum Optics is a field of research that harnesses interacting photons and atoms to explore the fundamental limits of the physical world. The focus is on observing aspects of the world that are uniquely quantum mechanical, including squeezing, entanglement, and the transition from quantum phenomena to the physics of the world as it operates at larger scales.

Topological physics is a rather abstract and mathematically theoretical subject, but it can lead to particular phenomena that scientists can measure in the laboratory. One such phenomenon is the fractional quantum Hall effect, which governs the behavior of electrons under the influence of powerful magnetic fields.

The study and development of the physics of devices based on controlling electrons and photons (light particles for use in detectors, information processing, and studying the fundamental properties of matter. Individual electronic and photonic components can be integrated into compact devices that take advantage of their complementary properties.