EAGER: Enabling Quantum Leap: Exceptional-point Topological Polaritonics for Room-temperature Quantum Logic

非技术描述：这个EAGER项目寻求在一个被称为二维量子材料的新兴平台上实现室温量子逻辑操作。虽然量子技术提供了令人兴奋的机会，例如大型计算的指数级加速，但它们的实现通常需要低温条件，例如-269摄氏度，这在日常生活中是很难获得的。因此，研究小组提出从理论上和实验上研究一组基本的物理机制和现象，这些机制和现象可以显著降低量子逻辑门的阈值并使其达到室温运行。这项研究活动与通过跨学科的合作研究，在光学和量子物理、材料科学和纳米技术的前沿培养本科生和研究生的努力相结合。技术描述：光与物质之间的相互作用是量子逻辑门和经典光电器件的核心。到目前为止，大多数研究都是建立在腔量子电动力学的传统理论框架上，它依赖于一个假设：系统的格林函数可以通过其本征模完全展开。在这个项目中，研究小组提议在一种被称为例外点的独特类型的非厄米拓扑简并中，研究这种基本假设失效的新物理和设备。特别是，该项目侧重于在二维材料平台上应用异常点来降低量子逻辑阈值。该项目的成功完成可能会使人们在日常生活中使用量子技术，从而造福社会。此外，对非厄米性和拓扑物理的关注使经典光电器件的新家族的发展对我们在许多领域的技术基础设施至关重要，包括成像和传感，医疗保健和能源。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical description: This EAGER project seeks to enable room-temperature quantum logic operation in an emerging platform known as two-dimensional quantum materials. While quantum technologies present exciting opportunities such as exponential speed-ups of large computations, their realizations often require cryogenic conditions, such as -269 degrees Celsius, which is challenging to obtain in daily lives. Accordingly, the research team proposes to investigate, theoretically and experimentally, a set of fundamental physical mechanisms and phenomena that can significantly reduce the threshold of quantum logic gates and bring them to room-temperature operation. This research activity is integrated with efforts to train undergraduate and graduate students via interdisciplinary, collaborative research at the forefront of optical and quantum physics, material science, and nanotechnology.Technical description: The interaction between light and matter is at the heart of both quantum logic gates and classical optoelectronic devices. So far, most research is built upon the traditional theoretical framework of cavity quantum electrodynamics, which relies on one assumption: the Green's function of a system can be fully expanded by its eigenmodes. In this project, the research team propose to investigate new physics and devices where this fundamental assumption fails, at a unique type of non-Hermitian topological degeneracies known as exceptional points. In particular, the project focuses on the application of exceptional points to reduce quantum logic thresholds in the platform of two-dimensional materials. Successful completion of the project may benefit society by potentially granting access to quantum technologies in people's daily lives. In addition, the focus on non-Hermiticity and topological physics enables the development of new families of classical optoelectronic devices essential to our technological infrastructure in a multitude of areas, including imaging and sensing, healthcare, and energy.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.