Novel Superconducting Physics Through Microwave Imaging

非技术摘要：超导是一种改变游戏规则的技术，它使磁共振成像广泛用于医学诊断，并且是新兴量子信息革命的领先技术平台。 该研究项目解决了超导性对社会需求的一些重大挑战：寻找一种室温超导体，这将使高影响力的技术成为可能，为国家创造巨大的财富。 这些材料将彻底改变电力分配以及信息技术，为社会带来无与伦比的好处。 PI发明并开发了一种新的显微镜，专门用于对超导材料的特性进行成像，从而实现了对这些新超导材料的研究。 这是与马里兰州大学和罗格斯大学的创意材料种植者合作进行的发现过程的一部分。 该项目还将严格培训两名研究生，以解决复杂的问题，并以创造性和定量的方式解决这些问题。 学生们将继续为超导体的进一步发展做出贡献，使其成为高影响力和广泛有益的技术。 PI继续通过研究包容性和外展活动，如Physics is Phun和Physics Summer Girls Program，解决代表性不足的群体。技术摘要：研究团队正在使用自己发明的新型显微镜研究尖端超导现象。 PI开发了一种新的显微工具，可以在真实的空间中成像超导间隙节方向，并测量由于节间隙结构而存在的零能量激发。 PI的显微镜成像超导体的非线性迈斯纳响应沿着来自超导材料表面上的任何其他零能量激发（例如Andreev束缚态、Majorana零模式等）的非线性响应。 该研究项目的目标是阐明具有奇异性质的新超导材料的配对状态对称性，例如邻近耦合s波/拓扑绝缘体系统和假定j = 3/2自旋配对的超导体。 PI的显微镜特别适合研究这些材料中预测的Bogoliubov费米表面。 该团队还在研究两个系统，这些系统被提议作为掺杂或压力的函数改变配对状态对称性。 显微镜还可以灵敏地测量作为温度函数的复表面阻抗，以提供关于成像结果的交叉检查信息。 该团队正在开发一种新的高压版本的显微镜，以测量无接触的迈斯纳状态屏蔽和超导体在极端条件下的宏观量子特性，这种测量以前从未完成过。 在马里兰州和罗格斯大学的创新材料合作者的帮助下，该团队正在使用这种新的显微镜作为发现和研究温度-掺杂-压力相图中奇异超导体基本特性的有力工具。该奖项反映了NSF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 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.