Can quantum materials finally escape cryogenic cooling? Researchers have engineered a material that can preserve quantum behaviour under room temperatures.
– Credit: LSU Quantum Photonics Group.
Researchers at Louisiana State University (LSU) have developed what they describe as the first room-temperature quantum material capable of distinguishing and transporting different quantum states of light. Reported in Nature, the engineered material overcomes a longstanding limitation of quantum materials, which typically require cryogenic cooling to preserve their quantum properties.
The development could simplify the deployment of quantum technologies by eliminating bulky refrigeration systems that have traditionally been needed to suppress atomic vibrations. Operating under ambient conditions, the material offers a potential pathway towards more practical quantum computing, secure communications, sensing systems and advanced energy applications.
Instead of searching for a naturally occurring quantum material, the team engineered one from the ground up. The researchers deposited a thin gold film onto a glass substrate and used focused ion beam patterning to carve hundreds of microscopic slits that function as artificial atoms, or meta-atoms. Together, these structures form a quantum statistical plasmonic metacrystal, an engineered crystal designed to manipulate quantum states of light.
Unlike conventional optical materials that respond mainly to a light wave’s wavelength or intensity, the metacrystal distinguishes between different quantum states of incoming photons and directs each state along a separate pathway. By controlling the size, shape and spacing of the meta-atoms, the researchers created quantum statistical bands that determine which quantum states propagate through the material with minimal disturbance. According to the team, this enables robust transport of quantum information at room temperature without cryogenic cooling.
“We call this robust transport. These quantum states carry information. Our crystal can distinguish them and move them from one point to another in a robust way without requiring cryogenic cooling. That’s what opens the door to practical quantum technologies,” says Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza, Associate Professor of Physics at Louisiana State University.
