In the technology world, complex oxides are “wonder” materials that can have a wide array of electronic, magnetic and optical properties. As a result, they could enable next-generation electronics, data storage, sensing, energy technologies, biomedical devices, and many other applications.

Stacking ultrathin complex oxide single-crystal layers—or those composed of geometrically arranged atoms—allows researchers to create new heterostructures with hybrid properties and multiple functionalities. Now, a revolutionary platform developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MIT will enable researchers to achieve these stacks in virtually unlimited combinations.

The team, including physics Professor Mark Rzchowski and grad student Julian Irwin, published details of the advance in the Feb. 5, 2020, issue of the journal Nature.

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Physics grad student and teaching assistant Alleta Maier has been honored with one of 15 campus-wide TA awards. Alleta earned an Early Excellence in Teaching Award. Congrats!

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Shine a laser pointer at a cat, and the cat may see and try to catch the light, but it certainly won’t feel it.

What if that light were not a milliwatt laser, but one hundred trillion times stronger — and the cat were essentially weightless, floating in space?

“Normally, optical forces are zero — you don’t feel light pushing on you. But with a very strong laser on a very light object, the forces start to be measurable and significant, and we are interested in studying those forces,” says Victor Brar, assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “A new idea called laser sailing is one area where these optical forces become relevant.”

Brar, with graduate student Joel Siegel and colleagues, conducted a set of simulations in which they show that a self-stabilizing laser sail is theoretically achievable, making it that much more feasible that a spacecraft will make it to neighboring star systems in our lifetime.

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The inaugural MS in Physics–Quantum Computing is the first program of its kind in the U.S. It addresses an emerging workforce need by preparing students to enter this rapidly growing and highly complex field. Most of the students will complete their degrees August, and we checked in with them one semester into their studies.

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Two technical breakthroughs, from the realms of experimental physics and microscopic communities, have claimed top honors from WARF this year.

The 2019 WARF Innovation Award winners are: Mark Saffman (physics) and Ophelia Venturelli, Philip Romero and Ryan Hsu (biochemistry). Saffman has developed simplified optical hardware for quantum computing. His technology, recently licensed to ColdQuanta Inc., improves an apparatus for particle trapping, which will reduce the cost and complexity of next-generation quantum computing devices.

“We’re trying to push the envelope on how much computation we can do with a quantum computer,” said Saffman. “We currently have more than 100 quantum bits…that’s the largest number of quantum bits any lab in the world has been able to demonstrate to date.”

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The Ingersoll Physics Museum and Steve Narf were featured in an article about museums and special collections within the College of Letters & Sciences. 

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Last week, crews at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota strapped the central component of LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) – the largest direct-detection dark matter experiment in the U.S. – below an elevator and s-l-o-w-l-y lowered it 4,850 feet down a shaft formerly used in gold-mining operations. At UW-Madison, the experiment is led by Physics Prof. Kim Palladino. 

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