MATL 492/892: Introduction to Quantum Materials and Technologies (Spring 2024)
Credit hours: 3
Location: W183 Nebraska Hall, City Campus
Date/time: Online and in-person (Mondays/Wednesdays 9:30–10:45 AM)
Instructor: Dr. Abdelghani Laraoui, Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Office: W312 NH, email: alaraoui2@unl.edu
Phone: 402.472.7680
Website: https://engineering.unl.edu/laraoui/
This is course is designed for engineering (materials, mechanical, electrical, computer, biomedical), physics, chemistry, and mathematics students (senior undergrads and grads) interested in learning about basics of quantum science and engineering.
Course description:
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 was awarded to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their experiments on quantum entanglement with photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities, opening new applications of quantum information science. Wide range of quantum technologies have experienced tremendous growth in the last few years thanks to the progress made in discovering new quantum materials and developing experimental quantum platforms. With claims from IBM and Google of computing exponentially faster than possible classically, quantum computing promises to be a fruitful realization of a new ‘unconventional computing’ paradigm. In addition, by developing new quantum sensors based on atomic defects in diamond, wide bandgap semiconductors, and two-dimensional materials, wide range of phenomena in physics, biology, and chemistry can be studied at the nanometer scale, leading to new devices and discoveries.
This course introduces basic laws of quantum mechanics and provides an introduction to revolutionary quantum technologies including quantum communications, quantum sensing, and quantum computing. The boundary between classical and quantum physics, quantization of electromagnetic field and its consequences, quantum electromagnetic and atomic physics, quantum topological materials and their applications in quantum technologies are discussed. The course will allow students to develop a conceptual understanding of quantum phenomena and identifies engineering challenges of various quantum technologies.
Learning outcomes:
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Identify fundamental differences between quantum and classical technologies
- Mathematically describe simple quantum phenomena
- Interpreting quantum signatures in experimental data
- Know about potential quantum materials for improved quantum technologies
- Analyze engineering challenges of quantum technologies
- Learn about research and job opportunities in quantum sciences and engineering
Topics to be covered:
- Overview of Quantum Technologies
- Fundamentals and essential concepts of Quantum Mechanics
- Quantum Resources: atomic qubits, photon-qubits, superconducting qubits, spin qubits, ionic qubits
- Quantum Sensing: Light interferometry-LIGO, diamond quantum sensing (magnetometry, thermometry)
- Quantum Communication: Quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution
- Quantum Computation: Single and two-qubit gates, quantum registers