Novel Superconducting Physics Through Microwave Imaging

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Non-technical Abstract:Superconductivity is a game-changing technology that has enabled widespread use of magnetic resonance imaging for medical diagnosis, and is the leading technology platform in the emerging quantum information revolution. The research project addresses some of the grand challenges of superconductivity for societal needs: The search for a room temperature superconductor that will enable high-impact technologies that will generate tremendous wealth for the nation. Such materials will revolutionize the distribution of electricity as well as information technology, bringing unparalleled benefit to society. The search for these new superconducting materials is enabled by the PI’s invention and development of a new microscope specifically designed to image the properties of superconducting materials. It is part of a discovery process carried out in collaboration with creative materials growers at the University of Maryland and Rutgers University. The project will also rigorously train two graduate students to attack complex problems and solve them in a creative and quantitative manner. The students will go on to contribute to the further development of superconductors into high-impact and widely beneficial technologies. The PI continues to address under-represented groups through both research inclusion and outreach such as Physics is Phun and the Physics Summer Girls Program.Technical Abstract: The research team is investigating cutting-edge superconducting phenomena with a novel microscope of their own invention. The PI has developed a new microscopic tool that can image superconducting gap nodal directions in real space, and measure zero-energy excitations that exist due to nodal gap structure. The PI’s microscope images the nonlinear Meissner response of superconductors along with nonlinear response from any other zero-energy excitations that live on the surface of the superconducting material (e.g. Andreev bound states, Majorana zero modes, etc.). The research project goals are to elucidate the pairing state symmetry of new superconducting materials with exotic properties such as proximity-coupled s-wave / topological insulator systems, and superconductors with putative j = 3/2 spin pairing. The PI’s microscope is particularly well suited to investigate the predicted Bogoliubov Fermi surface in these materials. The team is also investigating two systems that are proposed to have a change in pairing state symmetry as a function of either doping or pressure. The microscope can also sensitively measure the complex surface impedance as a function of temperature to provide cross-checking information on the imaging results. The team is developing a new high-pressure version of the microscope to measure contact-free the Meissner state screening and macroscopic quantum properties of superconductors under extreme conditions where such measurements have never been accomplished before. With the assistance of creative materials collaborators at Maryland and Rutgers, the team is using this new microscope as a powerful tool for discovery and investigation of the basic properties of exotic superconductors in the temperature-doping-pressure phase diagram.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.