Professor Tiancheng Song has been selected for an Early Career Research Program (ECRP) award by the U.S. Department of Energy. Established in 2010, this prestigious program aims to support outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulate cutting-edge research. This award will fund the Song Lab’s work on exploring novel superconductors based on two-dimensional (2D) materials for designing next-generation quantum devices.

Developing superconductors and superconducting devices is crucial for quantum information science, ranging from building superconducting qubits based on Josephson junctions to exploring topological qubits via the superconducting proximity effect. Complementary to conventional material systems, 2D materials and their van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures provide an emerging material platform for designing new superconducting quantum devices.

“Leveraging the recent breakthroughs in 2D quantum materials, we will discover new vdW superconductors, fabricate Josephson junctions, and engineer hybrid superconducting systems,” Song says.

The Song Lab will employ 2D superconductors to fabricate Josephson junctions and investigate unconventional Josephson effects enabled by the highly crystalline nature of junction materials, which can even unlock new opportunities in topological quantum computation. 

“We are excited to leverage the recent advances in the two rapidly developing fields, 2D materials and quantum information science, to harness unique opportunities enabled by their synergistic combination,” Song says.