Abstract: Quantum science and technology offer unprecedented opportunities to deepen our understanding of nature and enable transformative technologies. Realizing these opportunities, however, requires more than advances within a single discipline. New quantum phenomena must be understood at the level of materials, translated into controllable devices, and ultimately harnessed for increasingly sensitive measurements. This interplay between fundamental physics and device engineering can open pathways that are difficult to envision from any single field of study.
In this talk, I will share my journey across quantum materials, quantum devices, and quantum sensing, illustrating how discoveries in one area can create new opportunities in another. We will begin with the unusual properties of Dirac and topological materials and explore how these quantum phenomena manifest in Josephson junctions. We will then turn to how the unique electronic and thermodynamic properties of these materials can be harnessed to develop novel single-photon detectors. Building on these ideas, we will explore two-dimensional van der Waals materials as platforms for miniaturized quantum devices, including qubits and quantum-noise-limited amplifiers.
Turning this perspective around, we will then apply quantum sensors to investigate fundamental physics. We will focus on studying the pairing symmetry of unconventional superconductors, including magic-angle twisted graphene and topological Weyl superconductors, and explore how these emerging quantum-sensing technologies could enable new scientific frontiers, from planetary science to the search for axion dark-matter.
Together, these examples illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach—connecting materials physics, quantum devices, sensing, and fundamental science—can create new pathways for quantum discovery and technology.
References:
1. B. Huang, et. al., “Thermal detection of single photons using Dirac fermions,” Nat. Comm. 17, 3845 (2026).
2. J. Balgley, et. al., "Coherent and compact van der Waals transmon qubits," arXiv:2512.08059 (2025).
3. A. Banerjee, et. al., “Superfluid stiffness of twisted multilayer graphene superconductors,” Nature 638, 93 (2025).