A Step Towards Quantum Electronics

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

In general, it is difficult to produce a clean junction between quantum materials. Thanks to the collaboration between the teams in Geneva and Zurich, an important step has now been taken towards developing efficient junctions. For their ultracold atoms, the researchers produced junctions with a transparency close to 100 %. This advance is a crucial step towards understanding quantum transport in ultracold atoms and will enable fundamental studies of superconductors and other quantum materials. But interconnecting quantum materials such as superconductors might bring also new possibilities for more efficient information processing, beyond what is possible with techniques currently available for connecting, in computers and electronic devices, active elements such as transistors to form electronic circuits.

Now that junctions between quantum materials with strong interactions can be produced, scientists might eventually create novel materials that can be used in everyday applications. The unconventional approach developed in Geneva and Zurich therefore establishes the first basis for new technologies and opens up a new research direction that might lead to creating ultrafast and robust electronic networks — a dream that many physicists share.

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