Rice hosts workshop and winter school to advance quantum materials research

HOUSTON – (Nov. 20, 2024) – The Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM) and the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) at Rice University recently held two successive events aimed at advancing the field of quantum materials research.

The 2024 Rice Workshop on Functional Quantum Defects hosted Nov. 4-5 attracted global experts to campus to discuss recent advancements in quantum defect engineering, a rapidly evolving area essential to developing next-generation quantum devices. Following the workshop, the first RCQM Winter School on Quantum Materials Synthesis held Nov. 6-8 offered a suite of lectures and hands-on laboratory experiences to a select group of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

The workshop provided a platform for researchers to share breakthroughs and address challenges in understanding and engineering quantum defects — atomic-scale imperfections in the lattice of crystalline materials, where “lattice” refers to the ordered, repeating arrangement of atoms in solids. Quantum defects can be leveraged as a means to tune or control material properties with the goal of producing long-lasting quantum states. Such effects could provide the basis for the development of new, revolutionary technologies from efficient clean energy systems to breakthroughs in quantum computing, communications and more.

“Quantum defects provide a promising material platform to realize various disruptive technologies, including quantum computing, sensing and networking,” said Songtao Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. “These novel quantum technologies will advance the development of the next-generation distributed quantum computers and quantum sensors, which will have broad applications in secure communication, system optimization, drug design and medical devices.”

Chen together with Shengxi Huang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering, and Hanyu Zhu, William Marsh Rice Chair and assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, were the lead faculty organizers of the event.

Topics discussed at the workshop included the coherent control of spin-photon interfaces, quantum photonic devices and innovative approaches to quantum confinement and defect discovery using machine learning.

“Quantum information science is an important area of focus and national strategic interest, as outlined in the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018,” said Junichiro Kono , Rice’s Karl F. Hasselmann Professor in Engineering, professor of electrical and computer engineering, physics and astronomy and materials science and nanoengineering and SCI director. “The topic of quantum defects covers broad research aspects that match well with Rice’s strengths, including quantum materials, quantum photonics and quantum information processing. This makes Rice an ideal site for hosting this workshop.”

In their opening remarks, Kono and Emilia Morosan, professor of physics and astronomy and RCQM director, welcomed attendees and provided an overview of the history, legacy and activities of the institute and center, respectively.

“Rice has formed a strong synergistical and interdisciplinary research momentum on the institutional level towards fundamental research in quantum materials and developing future quantum technologies,” Morosan said. “This is reflected in our students’ and faculty’s levels of engagement, and this workshop and winter school are perfect examples of that.”

After the workshop, the focus shifted to the first RCQM Winter School organized by a team of Rice graduate students and postdocs, including Karthik Rao, Tia Gray, Wenjing Wu and Bin Gao.

Designed to bridge theory and practice, the winter school combined lectures on quantum materials synthesis techniques, such as pulsed-laser deposition and chemical vapor deposition, with hands-on lab sessions. Over the three days, students were introduced to several material synthesis techniques and engaged in practical exercises, including sample preparation and material growth.

“Quantum materials have a lot of potential to lead to breakthroughs in technology and help us overcome the limitations we face currently,” student organizers said. “Keeping this increasing demand for high quality materials in mind, we felt it would be a good initiative to educate researchers working with quantum materials about the various synthesis techniques we use to produce quantum materials, including current capabilities and limitations.”

The five speakers chosen to deliver lectures provided an overview of some of the leading techniques currently used to synthesize quantum materials:

● Lane Martin, Rice’s Robert A. Welch Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering and director of the Rice Advanced Materials Institute, spoke on using pulsed laser deposition to grow thin films of target materials on a substrate.

● Piran Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University, addressed the use of chemical vapor deposition to synthesize materials in a scalable manner.

● Tyrel McQueen, professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, gave a talk about the challenges of predicting the properties of quantum materials using AI and machine learning techniques.

● Alexander Demkov, physics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, spoke on material synthesis via molecular beam epitaxy.

● Binod Rai, senior scientist at Savannah River National Laboratory, gave a lecture on how to synthesize and characterize compounds with radioactive elements, an area that has been challenging to explore in university labs.

Winter school participants, which included students from Rice and universities across the country, also presented their research during poster sessions, fostering peer learning and collaboration. Both events underscored Rice’s leadership in quantum research and its commitment to training the next generation of quantum scientists.

“The practical sessions that we organized were a great success,” Rao said. “Participants got to both see what we do when we synthesize quantum materials using a variety of techniques and perform a few of the steps themselves.”

Gray said the winter school offered participants the opportunity to lay the groundwork for future collaborations and a shared sense of excitement about the future of the field.

“The discussions were really insightful,” Gray said. “The world of science is one big ecosystem of people, and the winter school, in addition to a great learning experience, was a great networking experience as well.”

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About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”