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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Strain-tunable microwave-resonance technique for quantum materials

By integrating a dielectric microwave resonator with a piezoelectric-based strain device, we develop an in situ strain-tunable microwave spectroscopy technique that enables contactless measurements of material properties under strain. To demonstrate the capability of this device, we measure the strain-dependent microwave surface impedance of the representative iron-based superconductor Ba⁢Fe 2 (As 1−𝑥 ⁢P 𝑥 ) 2 at the slightly overdoped composition. We successfully control and observe the suppression of superconductivity under both compressive and tensile anisotropic lattice distortions along the tetragonal [110] T direction, as manifested by changes in the quality factor and resonance frequency shifts of microwave resonance. Furthermore, strain-induced changes in microwave surface resistivity, an extension of conventional DC-limit transport elastoresistivity to the microwave regime, provide information on electronic anisotropy equivalent to that of DC elastoresistivity, while offering a contactless alternative. Furthermore, our strain-tunable cavity therefore serves as a powerful, contactless probe of fundamental material properties under strain and may also potentially facilitate the design of hybrid quantum systems with strain-engineered quantum degrees of freedom.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Superradiance in alpha clustered mirror nuclei

Resonances in unstable quantum systems are radiating states that despite decaying overall normalization have a well-defined structure which is being balanced by outgoing radiation. Such an interplay between outgoing wave and internal quantum many-body dynamics leads to several unique effects. One of those is known as superradiance, or alignment, where due to decay or virtual coupling to the continuum the states undergo restructuring so that their wave functions align towards the decay channels thus facilitating the decay. This effect is well understood theoretically and is closely related to the fundamental properties of reaction physics. Direct observation of superradiance in open quantum many-body systems is difficult because it is hard to find identical complex quantum systems that are different only in their coupling to the continuum of reaction states describing the decay. Here we report this phenomenon in alpha cluster decays of mirror nuclei 18 O and 18 Ne.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurements of a quantum bulk acoustic resonator using a superconducting qubit

Phonon modes at microwave frequencies can be cooled to their quantum ground state using conventional cryogenic refrigeration, providing a convenient way to study and manipulate quantum states at the single phonon level. Phonons are of particular interest because mechanical deformations can mediate interactions with a wide range of different quantum systems, including solid-state defects, superconducting qubits, and optical photons when using optomechanically active constructs. Phonons, thus, hold promise for quantum-focused applications as diverse as sensing, information processing, and communication. Here, we describe a piezoelectric quantum bulk acoustic resonator (QBAR) with a 4.88 GHz resonant frequency, which, at cryogenic temperatures, displays large electromechanical coupling strength combined with a high intrinsic mechanical quality factor, Q i ≈ 4.3 × 10 4 . Using a recently developed flip-chip technique, we couple this QBAR resonator to a superconducting qubit on a separate die and demonstrate the quantum control of the mechanics in the coupled system. Furthermore, this approach promises a facile and flexible experimental approach to quantum acoustics and hybrid quantum systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Exact bounds for dynamical critical exponents of transverse-field Ising chains with a correlated disorder

Highlights: • Analytic results in disordered quantum systems are obtained. • Correlated disorder changes the universality class of quantum phase transitions. • The lower and upper bounds of the dynamical critical exponent are obtained. This study investigates the dynamical critical exponent of disordered Ising chains under transverse fields to examine the effect of a correlated disorder on quantum phase transitions. The correlated disorder, where the on-site transverse field depends on the nearest-neighbor coupling strengths connecting the site, gives a qualitatively different result from the uncorrelated disorder. In the uncorrelated disorder cases where the transverse field is either homogeneous over sites or random independently of the nearest-neighbor coupling strengths, the dynamical critical exponent is infinite. In contrast, in the presence of the correlated disorder, we analytically show that the dynamical critical exponent is finite. We also show that the dynamical critical exponent depends on the tuning process of the transverse field strengths.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tree tensor network hierarchical equations of motion based on time-dependent variational principle for efficient open quantum dynamics in structured thermal environments

In this work, we introduce an efficient method, TTN-HEOM, for exactly calculating the open quantum dynamics for driven quantum systems interacting with highly structured bosonic baths by combining the tree tensor network (TTN) decomposition scheme with the bexcitonic generalization of the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM). The method yields a series of quantum master equations for all core tensors in the TTN that efficiently and accurately capture the open quantum dynamics for non-Markovian environments to all orders in the system–bath interaction. These master equations are constructed based on the time-dependent Dirac–Frenkel variational principle, which isolates the optimal dynamics for the core tensors given the TTN ansatz. The dynamics converges to the HEOM when increasing the rank of the core tensors, a limit in which the TTN ansatz becomes exact. We introduce TENSO, tensor equations for non-Markovian structured open systems, as a general-purpose Python code to propagate the TTN-HEOM dynamics. We implement three general propagators for the coupled master equations: two fixed-rank methods that require a constant memory footprint during the dynamics and one adaptive-rank method with a variable memory footprint controlled by the target level of computational error. We exemplify the utility of these methods by simulating a two-level system coupled to a structured bath containing one Drude–Lorentz component and eight Brownian oscillators, which is beyond what can presently be computed using the standard HEOM. Our results show that the TTN-HEOM is capable of simulating both dephasing and relaxation dynamics of driven quantum systems interacting with structured baths, even those of chemical complexity, with an affordable computational cost.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum algorithms for geologic fracture networks

Abstract Solving large systems of equations is a challenge for modeling natural phenomena, such as simulating subsurface flow. To avoid systems that are intractable on current computers, it is often necessary to neglect information at small scales, an approach known as coarse-graining. For many practical applications, such as flow in porous, homogenous materials, coarse-graining offers a sufficiently-accurate approximation of the solution. Unfortunately, fractured systems cannot be accurately coarse-grained, as critical network topology exists at the smallest scales, including topology that can push the network across a percolation threshold. Therefore, new techniques are necessary to accurately model important fracture systems. Quantum algorithms for solving linear systems offer a theoretically-exponential improvement over their classical counterparts, and in this work we introduce two quantum algorithms for fractured flow. The first algorithm, designed for future quantum computers which operate without error, has enormous potential, but we demonstrate that current hardware is too noisy for adequate performance. The second algorithm, designed to be noise resilient, already performs well for problems of small to medium size (order 10–1000 nodes), which we demonstrate experimentally and explain theoretically. We expect further improvements by leveraging quantum error mitigation and preconditioning.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Collection of fluorescence from an ion using trap-integrated photonics

Spontaneously emitted photons are entangled with the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom of the emitting atom, so interference and measurement of these photons can entangle separate matter-based quantum systems as a resource for quantum information processing. Since confinement in a single-mode facilitates the photon interference needed for generating entanglement, the dipole emission patterns relevant in spontaneous emission present a mode-matching challenge. Current demonstrations rely on bulk photon-collection and manipulation optics that suffer from large component size and system-to-system variability—factors that impede scaling to the large numbers of entangled pairs needed for quantum information processing. To address these limitations, we demonstrate a collection method that enables passive phase stability, straightforward photonic manipulation, and intrinsic reproducibility. Specifically, we engineer a waveguide-integrated grating to couple photons emitted from a trapped ion into a single optical mode within a microfabricated ion-trap chip. Using the integrated collection optic, we characterize the collection efficiency, image the ion, and detect the ion’s quantum state. The integrated optic covers 2.18% of the solid angle and collects 1.97 ± 0.3% of the spontaneously emitted light incident on the grating for a total collection efficiency of 0.043% into a single-mode waveguide. This proof-of-principle demonstration lays the foundation for leveraging the inherent stability and reproducibility of integrated photonics to create, manipulate, and measure multipartite quantum states in arrays of quantum emitters.

Optical physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Increasing Extractable Work in Small Qubit Landscapes

An interesting class of physical systems, including those associated with life, demonstrates the ability to hold thermalization at bay and perpetuate states of high free-energy compared to a local environment. In this work we study quantum systems with no external sources or sinks for energy, heat, work, or entropy that allow for high free-energy subsystems to form and persist. We initialize systems of qubits in mixed, uncorrelated states and evolve them subject to a conservation law. We find that four qubits make up the minimal system for which these restricted dynamics and initial conditions allow an increase in extractable work for a subsystem. On landscapes of eight co-evolving qubits, interacting in randomly selected subsystems at each step, we demonstrate that restricted connectivity and an inhomogeneous distribution of initial temperatures both lead to landscapes with longer intervals of increasing extractable work for individual qubits. We demonstrate the role of correlations that develop on the landscape in enabling a positive change in extractable work.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Efficient fully-coherent quantum signal processing algorithms for real-time dynamics simulation

Simulating the unitary dynamics of a quantum system is a fundamental problem of quantum mechanics, in which quantum computers are believed to have significant advantage over their classical counterparts. One prominent such instance is the simulation of electronic dynamics, which plays an essential role in chemical reactions, non-equilibrium dynamics, and material design. These systems are time-dependent, which requires that the corresponding simulation algorithm can be successfully concatenated with itself over different time intervals to reproduce the overall coherent quantum dynamics of the system. In this paper, we quantify such simulation algorithms by the property of being fully-coherent: the algorithm succeeds with arbitrarily high success probability 1 − δ while only requiring a single copy of the initial state. Here we subsequently develop fully-coherent simulation algorithms based on quantum signal processing (QSP), including a novel algorithm that circumvents the use of amplitude amplification while also achieving a query complexity additive in time t, ln(1/δ), and ln(1/ϵ) for error tolerance ϵ: $Θ‖\mathscr{H}‖|t|+ln(1/ϵ)+ln(1/δ)$. Furthermore, we numerically analyze these algorithms by applying them to the simulation of the spin dynamics of the Heisenberg model and the correlated electronic dynamics of an H2 molecule. Since any electronic Hamiltonian can be mapped to a spin Hamiltonian, our algorithm can efficiently simulate time-dependent ab initio electronic dynamics in the circuit model of quantum computation. Accordingly, it is also our hope that the present work serves as a bridge between QSP-based quantum algorithms and chemical dynamics, stimulating a cross-fertilization between these exciting fields.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hybrid Entanglement Distribution between Remote Microwave Quantum Computers Empowered by Machine Learning

Superconducting microwave circuits with Josephson junctions, the major platform for quantum computing, can only reach the full capability when connected. This requires an efficient protocol to distribute microwave entanglement. While quantum computers typically use discrete-variable (DV) methods for information encoding, the entire continuous-variable (CV) degree of freedom in electromagnetic fields must be utilized to achieve the highest entanglement distribution rate. Here, we propose a hybrid protocol to resolve the incompatibility between DV microwave quantum computers and CV quantum communications. CV microwave entanglement is distributed using optical swapping of optical-microwave entanglement pairs. To interface with DV microwave quantum computers, we further design a hybrid circuit to simultaneously convert and distill high-quality DV entanglement from noisy CV entanglement. The hybrid circuit is trained with machine-learning algorithms, ensuring high entanglement fidelity and generation rate. In conclusion, our work not only provides a practical method to realize efficient quantum links for superconducting microwave quantum computers, but also opens avenues to bridge the gap between DV and CV quantum systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Benchmarking highly entangled states on a 60-atom analogue quantum simulator

Abstract Quantum systems have entered a competitive regime in which classical computers must make approximations to represent highly entangled quantum states 1,2 . However, in this beyond-classically-exact regime, fidelity comparisons between quantum and classical systems have so far been limited to digital quantum devices 2–5 , and it remains unsolved how to estimate the actual entanglement content of experiments 6 . Here, we perform fidelity benchmarking and mixed-state entanglement estimation with a 60-atom analogue Rydberg quantum simulator, reaching a high-entanglement entropy regime in which exact classical simulation becomes impractical. Our benchmarking protocol involves extrapolation from comparisons against an approximate classical algorithm, introduced here, with varying entanglement limits. We then develop and demonstrate an estimator of the experimental mixed-state entanglement 6 , finding our experiment is competitive with state-of-the-art digital quantum devices performing random circuit evolution 2–5 . Finally, we compare the experimental fidelity against that achieved by various approximate classical algorithms, and find that only the algorithm we introduce is able to keep pace with the experiment on the classical hardware we use. Our results enable a new model for evaluating the ability of both analogue and digital quantum devices to generate entanglement in the beyond-classically-exact regime, and highlight the evolving divide between quantum and classical systems.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Variational approach to quantum state tomography based on maximal entropy formalism

Quantum state tomography is an integral part of quantum computation and offers the starting point for the validation of various quantum devices. One of the central tasks in the field of state tomography is to reconstruct, with high fidelity, the quantum states of a quantum system. From an experiment on a real quantum device, one can obtain the mean measurement values of different operators. With such data as input, in this report we employ the maximal entropy formalism to construct the least biased mixed quantum state that is consistent with the given set of expectation values. Even though, in principle, the reported formalism is quite general and should work for an arbitrary set of observables, in practice we shall demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm on an informationally complete (IC) set of Hermitian operators. Such a set possesses the advantage of uniquely specifying a single quantum state from which the experimental measurements have been sampled and hence renders the rare opportunity not only to construct a least-biased quantum state but even replicate the exact state prepared experimentally within a preset tolerance. Here, the primary workhorse of the algorithm is reconstructing an energy function which we designate as the effective Hamiltonian of the system, and parameterizing it with Lagrange multipliers, according to the formalism of maximal entropy. These parameters are thereafter optimized variationally so that the reconstructed quantum state of the system converges to the true quantum state within an error threshold. To this end, we employ a parameterized quantum circuit and a hybrid quantum-classical variational algorithm to obtain such a target state, making our recipe easily implementable on a near-term quantum device.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Acoustic Radiation From a Superconducting Qubit: From Spontaneous Emission to Rabi Oscillations

Hybrid quantum systems that utilize controllable coupling between phonons and superconducting qubits could pave the way for a new generation of compact quantum memories and sensor technologies. However, the same electromechanical interaction mechanisms that enable coherent qubit-phonon coupling can also lead to decoherence due to the spontaneous phonon emission. In this paper we study the dynamics of a qubit coupled to an acoustic resonator by a piezoelectric film. By varying the surface topography of the resonator from rough to flat to shaped, we explore the crossover from fast decay of an excited qubit to quantum-coherent coupling between the qubit and an isolated phonon mode. The developed theoretical model allows us to establish and check quantitative links between the results obtained for the rough and shaped topographies. Discrepancy between the theory and the data for the flat resonator points to the imperfections of the studied device. Our experimental approach may be used for precision measurements of crystalline vibrations, the design of quantum memories, and the study of electromechanical contributions to dielectric loss.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Systematic Crosstalk Mitigation for Superconducting Qubits via Frequency-Aware Compilation

One of the key challenges in current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers is to control a quantum system with high-fidelity quantum gates. There are many reasons a quantum gate can go wrong - for superconducting transmon qubits in particular, one major source of gate error is the unwanted crosstalk between neighboring qubits due to a phenomenon called frequency crowding. We motivate a systematic approach for understanding and mitigating the crosstalk noise when executing near-term quantum programs on superconducting NISQ computers. Here, we present a general software solution to alleviate frequency crowding by systematically tuning qubit frequencies according to input programs, trading parallelism for higher gate fidelity when necessary. The net result is that our work dramatically improves the crosstalk resilience of tunable-qubit, fixed-coupler hardware, matching or surpassing other more complex architectural designs such as tunable-coupler systems. On NISQ benchmarks, we improve worst-case program success rate by 13.3x on average, compared to existing traditional serialization strategies.

Computer architecture↗
DOE OSTI2026

Trigonometric continuous-variable gates and hybrid quantum simulations of the sine-Gordon model

Hybrid qubit-qumode quantum computing platforms provide a natural setting for simulating interacting bosonic quantum field theories. However, existing continuous-variable gate constructions rely predominantly on polynomial functions of canonical quadratures. In this work, we introduce a complementary universality paradigm based on trigonometric continuous-variable gates, which enable a Fourier-like representation of bosonic operators and are particularly well suited for periodic and non-perturbative interactions. We present an ancilla-based framework for implementing trigonometric gates with arguments given by arbitrary Hermitian functions of qumode quadratures. The protocol yields unitary gates deterministically, and non-unitary gates through probabilistic post-selection. As a concrete application, we develop a hybrid qubit-qumode quantum simulation of the lattice sine-Gordon model. Using these gates, we prepare ground states via quantum imaginary-time evolution, simulate real-time dynamics, compute time-dependent vertex two-point correlation functions, and extract quantum kink profiles under topological boundary conditions. Our results demonstrate that trigonometric continuous-variable gates provide a physically natural framework for simulating interacting field theories on near-term hybrid quantum hardware, while establishing a parallel route to universality beyond polynomial gate constructions. We expect that the trigonometric gates introduced here to find broader applications, including quantum simulations of condensed matter systems, quantum chemistry, and biological models.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Coherent Magnon–Photon Coupling in the Magnetic Semiconductor CrSBr

Magnon-based hybrid quantum systems are promising candidates for quantum interconnects and quantum sensors, and they offer a rich platform for exploring nonlinear magnonics and cavity–photon interactions. Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals magnets provide a compact, atomically flat geometry that can be easily integrated into existing quantum circuits, such as superconducting resonators and qubits. Among various 2D magnets, the magnetic semiconductor CrSBr is particularly unique due to its strong spin–exciton, spin–lattice, and magnon–exciton interactions. In this work, we demonstrate coherent coupling between antiferromagnetic (AFM) magnons in CrSBr and microwave photons in a niobium-(Nb)-based-on-chip resonator. We tuned the magnon–photon coupling strength by changing the number of CrSBr flakes integrated into the Nb microwave photon resonators. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the first step toward integrating layered van der Waals 2D magnets into superconducting microwave circuits, with full access for microwave and optical probing.

Electromagnetic radiation↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dynamic Carrier Modulation via Nonlinear Acoustoelectric Transport in van der Waals Heterostructures

Dynamically manipulating carriers in van der Waals heterostructures could enable solid-state quantum simulators with tunable lattice parameters. A key requirement is the formation of deep potential wells to reliably trap excitations. Here, we report the observation of nonlinear acoustoelectric transport and dynamic carrier modulation in boron nitride-encapsulated graphene devices coupled to intense surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on LiNbO 3 substrates. SAWs generate strong acoustoelectric current densities ( J AE ), transitioning from linear to nonlinear regimes with increasing SAW intensity. In the nonlinear regime, periodic carrier (electrons, holes, or their mixtures) stripes emerge. Using counter-propagating SAWs, we create standing SAWs (SSAWs) to dynamically manipulate charge distributions without static gates. The saturation of J AE , attenuation transitions, and tunable resistance peaks confirms strong carrier localization. Finally, these results establish SAWs as a powerful tool for controlling carrier dynamics in two-dimensional (2D) materials, paving the way for the development of time-dependent quantum systems and acoustic lattices for quantum simulation.

2D materials↗
DOE OSTI2022

Visualization and quantum control of light-accelerated condensates by terahertz multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy

Abstract Characterizing and controlling high-order correlation of quantum systems is key for developing quantum devices and switching technologies. Although conventional static and ultrafast spectroscopy gives access to collective excitations characterizing quantum states, more exotic correlations cannot be easily separated from other contributions. Here we develop density matrix simulations to show that seventh-order-wave-mixing peaks with distinct temperature and field dependences in two-dimensional terahertz nonlinear spectra reveal light-induced correlations in non-equilibrium superconducting states. Above critical terahertz driving, these emerging peaks split from conventional peaks along the second axis introduced by pump-probe relative phase in two-dimensional frequency space. They are photo-generated by correlations between two-photon fluctuations and interacting quasi-particle and quasi-particle/Higgs superconductor excitations. By photo-inducing persistent symmetry breaking via light-wave propagation, we also demonstrate seventh-order-wave-mixing sensing of Higgs collective modes. Our theory suggests to use multi-dimensional spectroscopy for quantum sensing of light-driven superconductivity and paves a path for quantum operations by few-cycle-THz-periodic photocurrent modulation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗