Events Archive

Light-responsive Molecular Materials By assembling materials from molecular building blocks we can access new utility from known light-responsive..

The PQI Student Seminar Series begins this week with Melanie Dieterlen presenting "Nanoscale THz spectroscopy of electrically gated quantum materials." The seminar will be held in Allen 321 on the University of Pittsburgh campus at 2pm, on Thursday 1/19.

Brennan Bell will be speaking Friday, October 21 at 12:00-1:00 PM EDT on his paper accepted to this year's IEEE Quantum Week Conference titled..

Date: 29-30 September 2022 Supported by the National Science Foundation and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Dr. Robert K..

he annual PQI signature event, planned for September 13-15, 2022, will cover a wide range of topics in quantum science and engineering by featuring prominent invited keynote lecturers and highlighting the current research of PQI members. All talks are colloquium-style and accessible to a broad audience.

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract: This talk will be on three topics, but in a way it is one. My research focus and passion is the proximity effect. It..

Abstract : Quantum computing has been attracting public attention recently. This interest is driven by the advancements in hardware, software, and..

A Pitt Physics seminar Abstract : Magnetic skyrmions and topological spin textures have been investigated as possible information carriers in next..

Abstract : Topologists can differentiate between bagels and pretzels by simply counting holes in each bread. The number of holes, formally described..

Where: zoom, register here : pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItduqrrz0iGtWQzVI9XRxJqHXB8v-kXq69 When: 1pm-5pm, Wednesday Apr 27, 2022 Description:..

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract : The study of quantum materials has emerged as a rapidly developing field of condensed matter and materials physics..

Local to Meso-scale Structure and Polarization in Electronic Oxides Characterized by Aberration -Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy..

A CMU-PITT Colloquium Abstract : Quantum materials provide an exciting platform to realize emergent phenomena and topological properties in condensed..

A CMU-PITT Colloquium Abstract : The emergence of the two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) ushers in a new era of light-..

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract : The extraordinary advances in quantum control of matter and light have been transformative for atomic and molecular..

A CMU-PITT Colloquium Abstract : Electron microscopy is transforming the physical sciences. Aided by a new generation of direct imaging detectors,..

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract : Plasmons, the self-sustained collective density modes in metals, form an integral part of the description of..

A Pitt Chem Seminar Abstract : Since the discovery of conducting polymers, organic materials have promised great applications in energy conversion,..

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract : Low-dimensional materials, such as 2D monolayers, 1D nanowires, and 0D quantum dots and molecules, are rich with..

Abstract: Superconductivity has been a major research topic for more than a century, yet in many important materials this macroscopic quantum..

A PQI Seminar Abstract : Optical laser communication forms a cornerstone of modern-day data communications. In the quantum-limited regime of lasercom..

A Pitt Physics seminar Register: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlcOqgpz4vE9EIq_rfZx-3-ap9ZA4qPK8r Abstract : Superconducting quantum..

A Pitt/CMU Colloquium Abstract : In the 1950s and 60s many strongly interacting particles were discovered. String theory was originally invented to..

A Pitt ECE Seminar Abstract: The active control of phase and amplitude of light enables programmable nanophotonic devices, enabling optical..

A Materials Design User Group Meeting webinar Quantum computing is heralding a paradigm change in information and simulation technology. Perhaps more..

Quantum information research with superconducting circuits Abstract : The long-term objective of quantum information research is to build machines,..

Higgs boson at the LHC: Addressing open questions in elementary particle physics Abstract : The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland..

Quantum Computing: From Academic Research to Real-World Applications Register and learn more here ! Read Matthias Troyer's interview with HPCwire here ! Abstract : Still in early development, quantum computing is already overturning our contemporary notions of computational methods and devices. Using new concepts of computing based in quantum physics, these computers will be able to solve certain problems that are completely intractable on any imaginable classical computer, such as accurate simulations of molecules and materials, or breaking public key encryption. While this potential is real, quantum computers are best viewed as special purpose accelerators for specific problem classes. In an effort to bring clarity to the fast-growing field of quantum computing, I will describe the hardware and software architecture of quantum computers and discuss how they differ from conventional classical high performance computers. Based on this, I will also attempt to dispel myths and hype surrounding the field and present a realistic assessment of the potential of these devices and the specific application areas on which they are expected to have a large impact. I will end by showing that quantum computing already generates value today, through quantum inspired approaches. These are quantum approaches implemented on classical HPC hardware that outperform the state of the art of classical methods known before, with applications in health care, logistics, chemistry and other areas. Bio: Matthias Troyer is a Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft and affiliate faculty at the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and Vice President of the Aspen Center for Physics. Troyer is a recipient of the Rahman Prize for Computational Physics of the American Physical Society for “pioneering numerical work in many seemingly intractable areas of quantum many body physics and for providing efficient sophisticated computer codes to the community.” He is also a recipient of the Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics. He received his PhD in 1994 from ETH Zurich in Switzerland and spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tokyo. Later, Troyer was professor of Computational Physics at ETH Zurich until joining Microsoft’s quantum computing program at the beginning of 2017. At Microsoft he works on quantum architecture and leads the development of applications for quantum computers. His broader research interests span high performance computing, and quantum computing, as well as simulations of quantum devices and island ecosystems.

Pure dephasing effects in superconducting flux qubits and classical simulation of entanglement Zoom Link: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/92738959286 Abstract..

From the periodic table to new magnets: climbing the inverse design mountain Abstract : The development of novel materials is a fundamental enabler..

Understanding Nanoscale and Molecular Processes in Emulsions Systems See CMU Chemistry departmental email or contact the host, Olexandr Isayev, at..

Coupling Electronic Structure Theory with Machine Learning for Chemical Applications Abstract: Our recent efforts on the development of new..

Growth of Nanowires Heterostructures for Quantum Devices and Nanotechnology Abstract: Nanowires are crystals with the morphology of a hair but ten thousand times smaller. They measure several microns in length and tens of nanometers in diameter. For the past twenty years, nanowires have been at the root of important breakthrough in both basic science and nanotechnology in a multitude of scientific areas. They are now commonly developed for transistor and sensor applications, light emitting diodes or solar cells. In quantum technologies, their unique properties enabled the development of bright single photon sources, spin quantum bits and nanomechanical resonators. We fabricate nanowires with crystalline semiconductor materials such as silicon which is the backbone of electronics or gallium arsenide, which emits light and is used to manufacture light emitting diodes. For a certain number of applications, it is necessary to juxtapose different semiconductors to form a heterostructure. Yet, creating heterostructures is not an easy task, especially in thin films. As different crystalline materials have different lattice parameters (distance between atoms), the lattice is strained at the junction (or interface) between two materials. This induces the formation of defects, among them dislocations which deteriorate the targeted physical properties. Thanks to their morphology, nanowires have more flexibility to release strain, preventing the formation of defects. Nanowires have the potential to host heterostructures that cannot be fabricated in standard technologies, enabling the discovery of new physical phenomena and the improvement of existing devices. During the seminar, I will present an overview of my ongoing research on nanowire heterostructures. The first part will be dedicated to embedding light emitters in silicon technology. Different semiconductor families or high-mismatch semiconductors are combined in nanowires. I will show how interfaces are built without structural defects, a prerequisite for optoelectronic devices [1]. Then, I will present superconductor-semiconductor nanowire hybrids. A particular focus will be on the development and study of Sn/InSb interfaces which have recently shown high potential for superconducting and topological quantum circuits [2]. Finally, I will present the development of an ultrasensitive tool to study the mechanical properties of nanowires using a focused electron beam [3]. [1] Beznasyuk et al (2020) [2] Pendharkar et al (2020) [3] Pairis et al (2019) Biography: Moïra Hocevar is a researcher at CNRS Néel Institute in Grenoble since January 2015. She received an Engineering degree in Materials Science from INSA de Lyon in France (2004), a master degree in Environmental Science from Université Denis Diderot in Paris (2005) and her PhD in Electronics from INSA de Lyon in 2008. Prior to joining Néel Institute in Grenoble, she was a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands and a Nanoscience Foundation postdoctoral fellow in Grenoble. Her research focuses on creating novel nanowire heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy and uncovering their unique physical properties using Mhigh-end characterization tools.

Quantum-Size Supported Nanoclusters as Optimal Catalysts Towards Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Contact Rongchao Jin at rongchao@andrew.cmu.edu for more..

Abstract Quantum information theory, a multi-disciplinary area of quantum physics, computer science, and mathematics, aims at understanding the..

Demonstrating quantum advantage using near-term, noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors is a topic of keen interest in quantum computing..

Quantum materials host a vast array of emergent electronic phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity, topological properties, and..

Title: Controlling Correlations: Linear-, Nonlinear-, and Hydrodynamics in Quantum Materials Abstract: The physics of quantum materials hosts..

Data generation in materials science is often limited by the time it takes to perform experiments or simulations. To facilitate the exploration and..

This talk will attempt to answer the question, "Why Should Engineers Care about Quantum Computation." In the talk, I will lay out key concepts and..

Abstract: It has been widely appreciated that Heusler alloys (e.g., Co2MnSi) can be half-metallic, meaning that there is a gap for one spin state at..

Abstract : Nanoscale photonic structures such as metamaterials and metasurfaces are enabling manipulation of light and heat in unprecedented ways. In..

Abstract: What is called "orthodox'' quantum mechanics, as presented in standard foundational discussions, relies on two substantive assumptions ---..

Joint Pitt/CMU Colloquium Critical pattern formation at the Mott metal-insulator transition Abstract: I discuss the critical pattern formation of..

Joint Pitt/CMU Colloquium Fractionalized excitations in the quantum Hall effect Abstract: One of the basic tenets of Condensed matter Physics is the..

An overview will be presented of some emerging platforms that are relevant for energy infrastructure sensing applications including both optical..

Zoom access can be found in the PQI weekly newsletter or by contacting jennifer.stein@pqi.org Abstract: I will describe our experiments to drive spin..

Quantum mechanics was created with the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan. Schroedinger's wave mechanics shortly followed and allowed..

Register and attend the online Analog Computational Methods workshop for free taking place August 17th-19th with morning and afternoon sessions that include visiting speaker talks and panel sessions. Workshop Theme: Can we make classical analog computers that beat classical digital computers for at least some computational problems? Thank you to Drs. David Snoke and Vincent Liu for organizing this event!

Rongchao Jin, CMU, “Quantum-Sized Metal Nanoclusters” So Hirata, UIUC, “Numerical Evidence Invalidating Textbook Finite-Temperature Perturbation..

PQI has negotiated free unlimited access to talks and the video archive from the Telluride Summer Lecture Series , featuring live-streamed lectures and Q&A sessions with leading scientists. Register here for a Zoom link ID and password. Tuesday, August 11th: Energy Landscapes: Structure, Dynamics and Exploration Algorithms Wendesday, August 12th: Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Excitons: Bridging the Gap Between Quantum Mechanics and Applications

Welcome to all new graduate students! The Pittsburgh Quantum Institute is hosting a zoom meeting to welcome you, and let you know about all the..

PQI has negotiated free unlimited access to talks and the video archive from the Telluride Summer Lecture Series , featuring live-streamed lectures and Q&A sessions with leading scientists. Register here for a Zoom link ID and password. Monday, July 27th: Optimizing Thermodynamic Systems Thursday, July 30th: Developments in QM/MM and Embedding models for Photochemical and Electron Transfer Processes

PQI has negotiated free unlimited access to talks and the video archive from the Telluride Summer Lecture Series , featuring live-streamed lectures and Q&A sessions with leading scientists. Register here for a Zoom link ID and password. Monday, July 20th: XXVth International Symposium on the Jahn-Teller Effect Tuesday,July 21st: Multi-scale Quantum Mechanical Analysis of Condensed Phase Systems Thursday, July 23: Information Engines at the Frontiers of Nanoscale Thermodynamics

Yang Wang, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, “Ab initio electronic structure calculation at the dawn of exascale computing” Shiwei Zhang, Flatiron..

PQI has negotiated free unlimited access to talks and the video archive from the Telluride Summer Lecture Series , featuring live-streamed lectures and Q&A sessions with leading scientists. Register here for a Zoom link ID and password. Monday, June 29th: Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Chiral Structures and Their Assemblies

Sridhar Tayur, CMU, “Quantum Integer Programming (QuIP)” Fred Chong, University of Chicago, “Closing the Gap between Quantum Algorithms and Machines..

Jeremy Levy, UPitt, “ Correlated Nanoelectronics: The Next Dimension ” Amir Yacoby, Harvard University, “ Quantum Sensing Of Quantum Materials ” Sara..

The lecture will be livestreamed from our PQI YouTube channel [ click here ] and questions from the audience will be collected via the YouTube live channel chat and asked at the end. Lecture abstract: The Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) is an emerging unconventional computing architecture for non-convex optimization....

Zoom link Abstract: What does everyday copper, high temperature superconductors, magic angle graphene, doped silicon semiconductors, and the quark..

Abstract : High temperature superconductivity remains one of the major open problems in physics. It also is connected to another open question: what..

13th Elsevier Distinguished Lecture in Mechanics Quantum Information Science (QIS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are having a dominant influence..

Novel schemes for optically controlling ferromagnetic order at a femtosecond time scale receive great scientific interest. In the strongly non-..

Recent progress in combining density functional theory and related methods with the Boltzmann transport equation are enabling spectacular advances in..

The physical properties of matter change dramatically as atoms assemble into extended solids. Low dimensional crystals could be used to reveal the..

Thermodynamics has shed light on engines, efficiency, and time’s arrow since the Industrial Revolution. But the steam engines that powered the..

The possibilities of manipulating magnetization without applied magnetic fields have attracted growing attention over the last two decades. The low-..

Dr. Itamar Kimchi is currently an NRC postdoctoral fellow at JILA, the joint institute of NIST and the Department of Physics at the University of..

One of the most fascinating aspects of non-equilibrium physics is that a macroscopic quantum system pushed out of equilibrium can exhibit markedly..

The study of unconventional superconducting materials remains an active frontier of condensed matter physics. Exotic superconductivity, such as high..

Ashley Cook is a postdoctoral researcher in condensed matter theory in the group of Prof. Joel Moore at UC Berkeley. Abstract: In our daily lives, we..

Additive manufacturing (AM), known as 3D Printing, has given rise to powerful capabilities for converting 3D digital models into physical objects..

Results of a theoretical examination of the effect of crystal packing on singlet fission (SF) rate are presented. For a model system (pair of..

Inclusion of topological phenomena in condensed matter physics over the past 10 years ushered a new era in this field. As a result of the..

2-dimensional (2D) electron gas exposed to an external magnetic field has been a paradigm system to study the effect of electron correlation and..

Cyclotron resonance—the resonant absorption of light by charge carriers in a strong magnetic field—is widely used to measure the effective band mass..

Machine learning and artificial intelligence applications in science and engineering have received rapidly increasing hype over the last several..

The ability to efficiently separate, recombine, and direct charge carriers is central to a wide range of applications, including electronics,..

Come help unify and promote Quantum Science and Engineering in Pittsburgh at Science2019: Wednesday through Friday, October 16-18, 2019 Alumni Hall & Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center.

It is possible to engineer the properties of photons in an optical medium to have an effective mass and repulsive interactions, so that they act like..

TeachSpin's "Food Truck for the Physics Mind" is a unique resource for upper-level experimental physics labs. They will be at Pittsburgh ( 4024 O’..

Critical understanding of large amount of data exposes the unavoidability of disorder and leads to new descriptors for discovering entropic materials..

Phase-change chalcogenides (such as AgInSbTe and Ge2Sb2Te5) have been used commercially as an optical storage medium in the last few decades owing to..

Equity and inclusion are important goals for higher education. Data can play a central role in achieving these goals. First, data are essential for..

Come mingle with your PQI peers over some ice cream before school gets back in swing! @PQI office, August 22nd, 4-5:30pm

The grand finale of the 2019 Summer Workshop for Creative Science Writing for Undergraduates at the University of Pittsburgh co-organized by Lillian..

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The annual PQI signature event will cover a wide range of topics in quantum science and engineering by featuring prominent invited keynote lecturers and highlighting the current research of PQI members. All talks are colloquium-style and accessible to a broad audience.

TBD

In the race to show quantum advantage, early Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices must be compared to the state-of-the-art classical..

This presentation will discuss the applications of the phase-field method to understanding and discovering new mesoscale polar states that might emerge from nanoscale ferroelectric heterostructures subject to different mechanical and electric boundary conditions. As an example, the determination of thermodynamic conditions and geometric length scales leading to the formation of ordered polar vortex lattice as well as mixed states of regular domains and vortices in ferroelectric superlattices of PbTiO 3 /SrTiO 3 using phase-field simulations and analytical theory will be presented. Switching of these vortex lattice states might produce other transient polar states such as polar skyrmions. It is shown that the stability of these vortex lattices involves an intimate competition between long-range electrostatic, long-range elastic, and short-range polarization gradient-related interactions leading to both an upper- and a lower- bound to the length scale at which these states can be observed. We further predicted the periodicity phase diagrams that show excellent agreements with experimental observations by collaborators.

Publishing the results of one’s research is an integral part of the scientific process, yet scholarly journals are often seen as black boxes by..

Phase-change materials have been used commercially as an optical storage medium in the last few decades owing to their high optical contrast and long..

The ability to engineer controllable atom-photon interactions is at the heart of quantum optics and quantum information processing. In this talk, I..

Despite coffee’s ubiquity and tremendous economic value (~1.5% of the USA GDP), there remains very little research in the field. Yet, numerous..

Robert L. Kleinberg is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. From 1980 to 2018 he was employed by Schlumberger, attaining the rank of Schlumberger Fellow, one of about a dozen who hold this rank in a workforce of 100,000. He has served on or advised numerous government and academic committees on energy policy, and is a coauthor with Harvard faculty of a textbook on energy technology, in preparation. Dr. Kleinberg was educated at the University of California, Berkeley (B.S. Chemistry, 1971) and the University of California, San Diego (Ph.D. Physics, 1978). From 1978 to 1980 he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Exxon Corporate Research Laboratory in Linden, NJ. His work at Schlumberger focused on geophysical measurements and the characterization and delineation of unconventional fossil fuel resources. His current interests include energy technology and economics. Dr. Kleinberg has authored more than 100 academic and professional papers, holds 38 U.S. patents, and is the inventor of several geophysical instruments that have been commercialized on a worldwide basis. He is the recipient of the 2018-2019 American Physical Society Distinguished Lectureship Award on the Applications of Physics, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy.

Dr. Mikael Kuisma seeks quantitative and qualitative understanding of nanoscale quantum dynamics, such as collective excitations in functionalized..

A general scientific overview of the quantum mechanics and how computational quantum chemistry can be used to better engineer chemical reaction and..

Most of our understanding of the properties of materials comes from the study of thermal equilibrium, which is the state reached if one leaves a..

Superconducting metamaterials formed from arrays of thin-film lumped circuit elements provide a route for implementing novel dispersion relations and..

Empirical evidence suggests that living neural networks operate near a continuous phase transition, conjectured to be an optimal point for..

Schedule: Morning Session Chair: Michael Hatridge, University of Pittsburgh 9:00 Manuel Houzet, CEA Grenoble Microwave spectroscopy of a weakly-..

Schedule: Morning Session Chair: Roger Mong, University of Pittsburgh 9:05 Jay Sau, University of Maryland. Transport and Josephson response..

Light-matter interaction is at the heart of most optical processes we are familiar with such as absorption, emission and scattering. These are..

Come help unify and promote Quantum Science and Engineering in Pittsburgh at Science2018: Wednesday through Friday, October 17-19, 2018 Alumni Hall & Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center.

There is considerable interest today in quantum materials. While all materials obey quantum mechanics, there is specific interest in phenomena that..

As we begin to look at how spin qubits might be integrated into a scalable platform, a fruitful strategy is to engineer the magnetic environment of..

The last decade has seen the rapid growth of interest in materials that are topological because of strong spin-orbit coupling. These samples exhibit..

A talk based entirely on pictures. Seas sparkle, sunshine generates rainbows, ships make waves. The explanations of these familiar phenomena are as..

The study of strongly correlated electronic systems and the development of quantum transport in nanoelectronic devices have followed distinct, mostly..

A cornerstone of quantum physics is the interference of electron waves arising from the superposition principle. Metallic conductivity is an effect..

Quantum computation is a promising way to expand computational power as well as perform quantum simulations. There are many proposals on implementing quantum computation, including topological materials, trapped ions, superconducting circuits as well as semiconductor quantum dots. Semiconductor quantum dot qubits are promising candidates for quantum information processing and have recently made substantial experimental progress. One challenge for qubits without topological protection, however, is to suppress decoherence. Performing qubit gate operations as quickly as possible can be important to minimize the effects of decoherence. For resonant gates, this requires applying a strong ac drive. However, strong driving can present control challenges because of the strong driving effects that cannot be described using the rotating-wave approximation. Here we analyze resonant X rotations of a silicon double quantum dot hybrid qubit within a dressed-state formalism. We show that the strong driving effects can be suppressed to the point that gate fidelities above 99.99% are possible, in the absence of decoherence. When coupled to 1/f charge noise typical to our device, we further show that, by applying strong driving, gate fidelities can be above 99.9%. This shows that the quantum operations on silicon quantum dot hybrid qubits can be above the error-correction threshold, which is an important step towards realizing quantum computation.

We present a covariant theory for the ageing characteristics of phase-ordering systems that possess dynamical symmetries beyond mere scalings. A chiral spin dynamics which conserves the spin-up (+) and spin-down (−) fractions, and , serves as the emblematic paradigm of our theory. Beyond a parabolic spatio-temporal scaling, we discover a hidden Lorentzian dynamical symmetry therein, and thereby prove that the characteristic length L of spin domains grows in time t according to , where (the invariant spin-excess ) and β is a universal constant. Furthermore, the normalised length distributions of the spin-up and the spin-down domains each provably adopt a coincident universal ( σ -independent) time-invariant form, and this supra-universal probability distribution is empirically verified to assume a form reminiscent of the Wigner surmise .

We present our recent work on the computational investigations on the charge carrier transport and the excited state decay processes for organic energy materials. We developed a time-dependent vibration correlation function formalism for evaluating the molecular excited state non-radiative decay rate combining non-adiabatic coupling and spin-orbit coupling, to make quantitative prediction for light-emitting quantum efficiency. We proposed a nuclear tunneling enabled hopping model to describe the charge transport in organic semiconductors. An efficient time-dependent DMRG approach is proposed to calculate the optical spectra and carrier dynamics for molecular aggregates.

The microstructure of amorphous alloys attracted many researchers for more than 40 years. Several types of local structures, such as short and/or medium rage ordering have been proposed. Recent computer simulations have made the visible spatial distribution of free volume. However, since all these heterogeneities occur on a very small scale, their effect on the material properties is usually too small to be detected experimentally. However, it can be enhanced by heat treatment under an “external field”. One typical example is the formation of a creep induced magnetic anisotropy when a ferromagnetic amorphous ribbon is annealed under tensile stress. We found by X-ray diffraction and linear thermal expansion measurements (LTE) that this induced magnetic anisotropy originates in local strains frozen-in at room temperature after the annealing stress is released. Thus, a shrinking of the ribbons is observed during post annealing due to the releasing of the frozen-in elastic strain. Figure 1 shows temperature dependence of LTE coefficient, α. All curves show a minimum around the temperature used for the first creep heat treatments. This can be explained by a spatial distribution of the viscosity, η(T). When the alloy is heated to a certain temperature, some regions are still stiff and behave like solid (small η(T)) while the adjacent regions with larger η(T) deform easily. The difference of η(T) is enhanced by the difference in local glass transition temperature. The regions with larger η(T) “glue” the elastic strain in the regions with small η(T) and, hence, freeze it in. The temperature memory effects indicate that the distribution of η(T) does not change during the first annealing. Thus η(T) of the glue regions become large again and these regions start to deform again when the original annealing temperature is reached during post-annealing. Consequently, the elastic strain in the regions with small η(T) is released. The effects of annealing time and the size of heterogeneity will be discussed in this talk.

The incidence rates of cancers and other chronic diseases have been increasing in many regions and populations. There are more than 70,000 new cases of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis, diagnosed every year. Established diagnostic techniques for cancers and ulcerative colitis are invasive, cause discomfort, and are not cost-effective. The compliance rate for the screening of such diseases is very small due to this discomfort, expense, and the risk of complications. Thus, it is important to develop minimally invasive or noninvasive and cost-effective prescreening strategies. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy accompanied with different data analysis frameworks can provide an excellent spectroscopic technology to extract biochemical information from bio-fluids which can lead to the identification of diseases. Results show that dried serum samples can be used to detect the biochemical changes induced by cancers and IBDs. This potential technology can be further developed into a noninvasive, personalized diagnostic tool in which patient-to-patient differences in molecular signatures would allow the assessment of disease status and personalized drug management.

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) offers powerful resources for computing, artificial intelligence, and data management and analytics that are available at no charge for open research and to support coursework. In this talk, we will survey examples of breakthroughs that are using PSC resources and ways to leverage PSC for your own research. Examples will highlight successes in genomics, AI, neuroscience, engineering, and other fields. We will highlight two PSC resources that provide unique capabilities: Bridges and Anton 2. Bridges converges high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data and offers a familiar, an exceptionally flexible user environment, applicable to whatever data analytics or simulation exceed groups’ local capabilities. Anton 2 is a special-purpose computer that dramatically increases the speed of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to understand the motions and interactions of proteins and other biologically important molecules over much longer time periods than would otherwise be accessible. We will also describe Compass AI, a new initiative to help the community make the most of emerging hardware and software technologies for AI, develop best practices, provide education and training, and establish collaborations, especially between academia and the private sector. We outline areas of expertise at PSC where we are conducting research and open to additional collaboration. We close with a summary of opportunities to co-locate computational resources at PSC, with possible benefits of saving money, bursting to larger resources when needed, and leveraging PSC’s broad software collection. A number of PSC’s scientific staff will be present for discussion at the reception following the seminar. A reception will follow at 4:30pm

Quantum transport is a key area in quantum physics which presents challenges in terms of theoretical description. In this talk, I will present how the non-equilibrium dynamics of tunneling junctions weakly coupled to baths of fermionic or bosonic particles can be investigated using open system approaches, namely input-output formalisms and master equations. As a specific example, I will first present our study of electron transport in a quantum dot tunneling junction connecting two normal or superconducting leads, where both single-particle and Cooper-pair tunneling are considered. In particular, I will show how signatures of Andreev bound states can be obtained in the output currents. Then, I will present our results on spin transport in a quadratic spin system connecting baths modeled as XXZ spin chains. Based on non-Markovian master equations for the system and t-Matrix Product States simulations to compute the bath correlation functions, we showed that the spin current through the system can be enhanced due to the presence of the interaction in the baths as well as exhibit transient rectification (i.e. different current under bias exchange). Finally, I will sketch a more general outlook on how non-Markovian master equations could be used to study the transport properties of a system of unknown spectrum, which is particularly useful for the case of complicated time-dependent or many-body system Hamiltonians.

Quantum phase transitions are transitions between distinct many-body ground states, and are of extensive interest in research ranging from condensed..

Considering a career path outside academia? It can be confusing to figure out what else is out there, how to look for jobs, and how to decide what's right for you. Edward Dunlea, Special Assistant to the Dean of MCS, has been down this road and will offer some insights gleaned from his experiences in program management within the government, science policy both at a non-profit and within the private sector, and research administration in academia. His talk will focus on the field of science policy - what it is and how to find jobs - and he will also offer some general advice with an emphasis on careers outside of academia.

The annual PQI signature event will cover a wide range of topics in quantum science and engineering by featuring prominent invited keynote lecturers and highlighting the current research of PQI members. All talks are colloquium-style and accessible to a broad audience.

Superconducting qubits offer excellent prospects for manipulating quantum information, with good qubit lifetimes, high fidelity single- and two-qubit..

Join Angela Wilson of NSF, Cynthia Burrows of the University of Utah, Theodore Goodson of the University of Michigan, and Glenn Ruskin of ACS for an introduction of two of the most impactful "Big Ideas" as well as an overview of this innovative NSF program that will advance prosperity, security, health, and well-being in the United States. Learn more about : "Why Quantum entangled processes may play a role in our understanding of biological processes?"

The programmed assembly of nanoscale building blocks offers exciting new avenues to creating electronic devices and materials in which structure and functions can be chemically designed and tuned. In this context, the synthesis of inorganic molecular clusters with atomically-defined structures, compositions and surface chemistry provides a rich family of functional building elements. This presentation will describe our efforts to assemble such “designer atoms” into a variety of hierarchical structures and devices, and study the resulting collective properties.

We analyze the Andreev spectrum in a four-terminal Josephson junction between topological superconductors. We find that a topologically protected crossing in the space of three superconducting phase differences can occur between the two Andreev bound states with lower energy. We discuss the possible detection of this crossing through the transconductance quantization, in units of 2e^2/h, between two voltage-biased terminals. Our prediction provides another example of topology in multi-terminal Josephson junctions.

The nature of dark matter is one of the most important open problems in modern physics. Axions, originally introduced to resolve the strong CP..

This workshop is sponsored by PINSE/NFCF, JEOL and Three Rivers Microscopy Society (3RMS). The workshop will provide an introduction to the world of..

Rechargeable lithium ion (Li + ) batteries lose their ability to store charge over time. Whether they power your phone, your laptop, or your automobile, after 500-1000 recharge cycles they lose 20-40% of their capacity and must be replaced. Sony introduced the first commercial Li + battery in 1990, but 27 years later our understanding of WHY they fail is still in its infancy. Li + batteries have four parts: An anode (usually graphite), a cathode (usually a metal oxide), a separator membrane that is located between them, and a salt solution containing Li + . In our research, we have focused attention on one cathode material called ∂-MnO 2 . Our goals have been to increase the amount of energy we can store, to increase the rate at which we can deliver this energy, and to extend the lifetime of the cathode. Now, you might think that the worst way to make a battery cathode last longer would be to make it smaller! But we have discovered a process for preparing ∂-MnO 2 nanowires - just 60 – 600 nm in diameter and up to a centimeter in length – that never fail, and rarely lose any energy storage capacity, across 100,000 charge/recharge cycles. In this talk, I’ll discuss these unusual nanomaterials and what they may mean for the future of electrical energy storage.

In the 1980s, David Mermin derived a simple example of a Bell inequality and showed that it is violated in measurements on entangled quantum systems. In this talk, I reanalyze Mermin’s example, using correlation arrays, the workhorse in Jeffrey Bub’s Bananaworld (2016). For the class of all non-signaling correlations conceivable in the kind of experiment considered by Mermin, I derive both the Bell inequality, a necessary condition for such correlations to be allowed classically, and the Tsirelson bound, a necessary condition for them to be allowed quantum-mechanically. I show that the Tsirelson bound for these experiments follows directly from the geometry going into their quantum-mechanical analysis. I use this example to promote Bubism (not to be confused with QBism though both are information-theoretic approaches to the foundations of quantum mechanics). I do so by comparing the rules for probabilities in quantum mechanics, illustrated by my Bubist reanalysis of Mermin’s example, to the rules for spatio-temporal behavior in special relativity.

Women in Data Science (WiDS) is an international conference primarily located in Stanford, CA with 80+ satellite conferences across every continent except Antarctica. In 2017, over 75,000 people attended the conference in person and via the livestream and Facebook Live. The purpose of WiDS is to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and support women in the field; the conference features exclusively female speakers from academia and industry. Speakers include Marlene Behrmann, Maria Mori Brooks, Amelia Haviland, Kathryn Roeder, and Manuela Veloso.

The AVS Western Pennsylvania Chapter invites you to attend their meeting that will have a guest speaker and student poster session, as well as a tour..

The extreme surface sensitivity of two-dimensional (2D) materials provides an unprecedented opportunity to engineer the physical properties of these..

A moving fluid can become unstable in the presence of an obstruction, leading to a flow pattern that fluctuates in time due to nonlinear dynamics. It..

Quantum optics has had a profound impact on precision measurements, and recently enabled probing various physical quantities, such as magnetic fields..

The realization of large-scale controlled quantum systems is an exciting frontier in modern physical science. In this talk, I will introduce a new..

Over the last several years, research in the field of cavity optomechanics has developed extraordinarily sensitive and low loss devices as well as..

Quantum materials are fascinating platforms where macroscopic quantum phenomena occur. As a prominent example, superconductors conduct electricity..

Berr y phase played an important role in quantum mechanics and underlying the physics of a wide range of materials from topological phases of matters..

Trapped atomic ions are an ideal system for quantum computation, with optically-accessible qubit states with long coherence times and fidelities..

As a premier multidisciplinary, open, and shared research lab, the Carnegie Mellon Nanofabrication Facility, or Nanofab, is a nanomanufacturing hub that plays a vital role in major research thrusts for the College and the University, namely in Information Technology, Internet of Things, Energy, and Life Sciences. The Nanofab serves a broad community at Carnegie Mellon and beyond, providing equipment, services, and process support for the invention, synthesis, and fabrication of new materials and devices in the areas of magnetics and spintronics, MEMS and NEMS, optics and photonics, functional oxides, 2-dimensional materials, bioelectronics, and much more. This talk will focus on the current state of the Nanofab as it relates to both research, equipment capabilities and user interface. In particular, we will highlight the transformative impact that the new Claire and John Bertucci Nanotechnology Laboratory will have for the CMU community and the region. The new facility will play a critical role in facilitating housing of cutting-edge nanomanufacturing equipment as well as creating new synergies and means for research collaboration across campus. We will discuss these new capabilities and some of the future initiatives we would like to purse to revolutionize nanoscale science and engineering within Carnegie Mellon and the region.

Recent progress in the understanding of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics of many-body systems will be discussed. Applications to electron systems and..

Understanding structure-property relationships in fields as diverse as nanoscale electronic junctions, heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemistry and energy storage often starts by meeting the challenge of identifying key structure motifs. For the theorist this is followed by tackling the problem of calculating the relevant functional characteristics, also challenging, particularly for excited state properties. I will discuss the modern toolbox for these problems, including a brief outline of the basic physical ingredients of modern manybody perturbation theory which enables studies of excited state properties. I will then discuss its application in the context of the search to develop new materials for use in photocatalysis. In particular, I will discuss the search for key structural motifs at semiconductor-water interfaces and the connection to electrochemical energy level alignment.

Quantum theory, formed in the early part of the last century, has revolutionized our view on the nature of physical reality. More than half a century..

Statistical mechanics is founded on the assumption that a system can reach thermal equilibrium, regardless of the starting state. Interactions..

Topological materials and two-dimensional (2D) materials (including graphene) have become among the most actively studied systems in condensed matter..

A recent addition to low-dimensional materials are monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as WSe2, with an atomically thin,..

Researchers may gain a competitive edge when applying to prestigious annual programs like the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI..

One of the promising routes towards creating novel topological states and excitations is to combine superconductivity and quantum Hall (QH) effect..

Graduate and undergraduate PQI students will present their work and mingle with their peers. The PQI Fall Poster Session is a great opportunity for..

Pennsylvania Chapter of American Vacuum Society will be hosting two days-long “Plasma Processing; Reactive Sputter Etching and Deposition" workshop at the University Club of the University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA on October 19-20, 2017.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory will hold its fourth Open Campus Open House. This year we ask, "Who is the nation’s premier laboratory for land forces focused on discovery and innovation for the Army of 2035 and beyond?" The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is interested in working with you.

The quantum Hall effect, discovered 35 years ago, is a bizarre phenomenon in which a 2D gapped system can nevertheless carry a current. Moreover, the..

Organic and organic-based materials are broadly attractive as a complement to inorganic materials due to their relative ease of fabrication,..

ETS transcription factors comprise an evolutionarily related family of genetic regulators that are ubiquitous in animals and control a myriad of..

The anomalous Hall Effect (AHE) is one of the oldest and most prominent transport phenomena in magnetic materials. However, the microscopic mechanism..

Recent general results on the statistics of nonequilibrium processes have opened up old debates between the exact dynamical and informational..

DARPA will present its Young Faculty Award webinar tomorrow afternoon (2PM-5PM- Tuesday August 29); the Office of Research will host a viewing of the event. Interested early career faculty may contact Ryan Champagne or register online - there is space available. DARPA’s webinars provide an introduction to the agency, describe program requirements, and provide an opportunity to ask questions to the program manager. For more information check the following websites; DARPA Young Faculty awards webinar Young Faculty Award (YFA) Proposers Day

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals have emerged as a new class of materials with diverse electronic properties. This is best exemplified by graphene, and..

Strontium titanate is a bulk insulator that becomes superconducting at remarkably low carrier densities. Even more enigmatic properties become..

David Snoke will be giving six lectures at 2 PM on Mondays, May 29, June 5, June 19, June 26, July 3, and July 10, in G-10 Allen Hall. The basic..

Generation of high harmonics of light fields had led to numerous scientific and technological advancements since its discovery 30 years ago,..

The annual PQI signature event will cover a wide range of topics in quantum science and engineering by featuring prominent invited keynote lecturers and highlighting the current research of PQI members. All talks are colloquium-style and accessible to a broad audience.

Advancements in nanoscale engineering of oxide interfaces and heterostructures have led to discoveries of emergent phenomena and new artificial..