The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to Dr. Nicola Poccia from the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden. The funding of 2 million euros over the next five years will enable him to implement his project with the acronym 3DCuT which stands for "3D Cuprate Twistronics as a platform for high-temperature topological superconductivity".
In his ERC project, Nicola Poccia combines two important phenomena of modern materials research: High-temperature superconductivity and Twistronics.
High-temperature superconductivity allows for the flow of electrical current without resistance in some very special material, even at temperatures achievable with liquid nitrogen (-196°C). Despite this remarkable property, understanding the phenomenon remains one of the most significant unsolved mysteries in modern physics. At the same time, it is one of the subjects that has most promised in terms of technological applications, but which in reality has produced the least in comparison with other sectors of modern science. One of the reasons for this discrepancy is not only the difficulty in finding a unitary theory of this phenomenon, but also the extreme complexity of the materials which are considered among the most difficult to control. Only silicon, on which all modern electronics are based, by comparison, took more than 50 years to pass from studies on the material to uses in applications.
Twistronics is a young field of research that investigates the electronic effects created by the twisting of individual layers within stacks of layers. In the context of the recent “second quantum revolution” - it encompasses fields such as quantum sensing, quantum cryptography, and quantum computing - these twistronics systems hold enormous potential. The hope is that these can be used for new types of electronic components. The new quantum states realized with the twist can be useful for applications in quantum computation, for realizing an entangled state for quantum teleportation purposes or to experiment with the physics of quantum black holes and transversable wormholes. As the world races to unlock the potential of new modes for quantum technologies protected from noise, a crucial piece of the puzzle is designing and fabricating new platforms where these exotic modes can robustly occur in a variety of conditions and at temperatures that are easy to reach.
In his ERC project, Nicola Poccia wants to bring together these interesting and promising phenomena and develop new components for quantum technology. Specifically, ultra-thin layers of the superconducting material bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide are to be stacked on top of each other in such a way that they exhibit a twist in the crystal orientation. The size of the twist angle is an important parameter here. At certain twist angles, new physical phenomena occur that are the subject of basic research and raise hopes for new functionalities. Nicola Poccia and his working group at the IFW Dresden have already proven that they can produce twisted cuprate layers in a controlled manner and to a very high quality. The next step is now to produce complex three-dimensional nanoarchitectures from them and develop them into circuits and electronic components. With the Consolidator Grant, the ERC is providing the resources for this ambitious project. At the same time, the award represents a great appreciation of Nicola Poccia's previous work.
IFW scientists are particularly successful in the competition for the prestigious ERC grants. So far, five ERC Starting Grants, two ERC Advanced Grants and now the fifth ERC Consolidator Grant have been granted to IFW scientists.
About the ERC
The European Research Council is a European funding organization for basic, visionary research. The scientific excellence is the decisive criterion. The ERC Consolidator Grant promotes excellent scientists in consolidating their own independent research group with up to € 2 million over a five-year period.
Scientific Contact
Dr. Nicola Poccia
n.poccia[at]ifw-dresden.de
+49 (0)351 4659 527
Media Contact
Patricia Bäuchler
p.baeuchler[at]ifw-dresden.de
+49 (0)351 4659 249
