Breakthrough Identifies New State of Topological Quantum Matter

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Cornell scientists have revealed a new phase of matter in candidate topological superconductors that could have significant consequences for condensed matter physics and for the field of quantum computing and spintronics.

Cornell scientists have revealed a new phase of matter in candidate topological superconductors that could have significant consequences for condensed matter physics and for the field of quantum computing and spintronics.

Researchers at the Macroscopic Quantum Matter Group at Cornell have discovered and visualized a crystalline yet superconducting state in a new and unusual superconductor, Uranium Ditelluride (UTe2), using one of the world’s most powerful millikelvin Scanned Josephson Tunnelling Microscopes (SJTM). This “spin-triplet electron-pair crystal” is a previously unknown state of topological quantum matter.

The findings, “Detection of a Pair Density Wave State in UTe2,” were published June 28 in Nature. Qiangqiang Gu, a postdoctoral researcher working in the lab of physicist J.C. Séamus Davis, the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, co-led the research with Joe Carroll of University College Cork and Shuqiu Wang of Oxford University.

Read more at Cornell University

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