Researchers at Northeastern University have discovered how to change the electronic state of matter on demand, a breakthrough that could make electronics 1,000 times faster and more efficient.
By switching from insulating to conducting and vice versa, the discovery creates the potential to replace silicon components in electronics with exponentially smaller and faster quantum materials.
“Processors work in gigahertz right now,” said Alberto de la Torre, assistant professor of physics and lead author of the research. “The speed of change that this would enable would allow you to go to terahertz.”
From enabling quantum supercomputers to securing communications and teleporting quantum states, entanglement is the thread weaving through all of quantum technology. What once struck Einstein as a paradox is today routinely observed and harnessed in labs – the “spooky action” has become a practical tool. We have learned that entanglement is not some esoteric fringe effect; it’s a concrete physical resource, much like energy or information, that can be exploited to do tasks that are otherwise impossible. Its special correlations allow quantum computers to perform massively parallel computations in a single wavefunction, allow cryptographers to detect eavesdroppers with absolute certainty, and allow quantum states to be transmitted without moving a physical carrier.
Yet, there is still much to master. Entangling a handful of qubits is easy; doing so with thousands or millions – while keeping them error-corrected – remains a grand challenge. As we push the number of entangled particles higher, we are essentially scaling up new forms of matter (entangled states) that have no counterpart in classical physics. In 2022, a 12-qubit entangled state might be a small quantum circuit; by 2035, we could be operating machines where 1,000 qubits are all entangled in complex ways, delivering computational feats far beyond today’s reach. On the communications front, nascent quantum networks are entangling nodes over city-scale distances, working toward a future quantum internet that could interconnect quantum computers or enable clock synchronization and sensing with unprecedented precision. Each improvement in generating high-quality entanglement over distance inches us closer to unhackable global communication links.
Entanglement also raises philosophical questions about the nature of reality – it blurs the boundary between “separate” objects and challenges our intuitions of locality. But from an engineer’s perspective, entanglement is also just another phenomenon to be tamed and utilized. The narrative of quantum technology is one of turning quantum quirks into quantum capabilities. Where classical engineers use wires and signals, quantum engineers use entanglement and superposition. It’s telling that entanglement is often called the “essence” or “cornerstone” of quantum mechanics – crack it, and you unlock a whole new paradigm of information processing.
The Princeton researchers built their devices with great care. Along with former postdoctoral fellow Qi Zhang, they created ultra-clean samples and chilled them using liquid helium. They measured how the material reacted when exposed to circularly polarized mid-infrared light, at wavelengths around 10.6 microns. They observed a strong response when the light’s spin matched the material’s internal chiral state—a sign of a phenomenon called the circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE).
The CPGE has become a powerful tool in recent years. It works by measuring how electric currents change depending on the direction of light spin. In this case, the presence of a CPGE signal directly proved that the material’s internal structure was chiral. Even more, the direction and pattern of the signal revealed which symmetries had been broken.
The discovery puts to rest years of debate among physicists. Since 2021, there’s been disagreement over whether the charge-ordered state in KV₃Sb₅ actually breaks key symmetries or if those effects were caused by noise or imperfections. Earlier tools like scanning tunneling microscopes and electrical measurements had shown hints of chirality, but results were unclear and often contradicted each other.
A new hypothesis called the “quantum memory matrix” could solve long-standing physics questions, including the Black Hole Information Paradox and dark matter.
Mark Hersam is a nanotechnologist who believes that understanding materials at the shortest of length scales can provide solutions to the world’s largest problems. Using an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of neuroscience and nanoelectronics, Hersam presents a solution to the greatest societal threat posed by AI.
Dr. Mark C. Hersam, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the Materials Research Center, and Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Northwestern University, has made major breakthroughs in the field of nanotechnology. His research interests include nanomaterials, additive manufacturing, nanoelectronics, scanning probe microscopy, renewable energy, and quantum information science. Dr. Hersam has received several honors including the Marshall Scholarship, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, American Vacuum Society Medard Welch Award, U.S. Science Envoy, and MacArthur Fellowship. In addition, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Inventors and has founded two companies, NanoIntegris and Volexion, which are suppliers of nanoelectronic and battery materials, respectively.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Until recently, practical attempts rarely pushed beyond proof-of-concept.
Now researchers have used the teleportation trick to forge a working logic gate between two separate quantum chips sitting about six feet apart, hinting at a future where clusters of modest processors act as one mighty computer.
A qubit is valuable because it can be zero and one at the same moment, yet that superposition collapses if the qubit feels a nudge from the outside world.
In-space manufacturing is a relatively new field that seeks to utilize the unique characteristics of outer space and/or low-Earth orbit to achieve fabrication methods not possible on Earth. Space Forge’s primary goals are to produce semiconductors for data center, quantum, and military use cases, using “space-derived crystal seeds” to initiate semiconductor growth, utilizing unlimited vacuum and subzero temperatures for manufacturing, and then returning the chips to Earth for packaging.
The ForgeStar-1 satellite will not bring the cargo it manufactures back to Earth at the completion of its mission. Acting more as a proof-of-concept and prototype for a litany of technologies engineered by Space Forge, the satellite will be tasked with running through the successful application of key technologies for in-space manufacturing, and will end its mission with a spectacular fireball.
Space Forge plans to test both the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the satellite’s recovery. First, it will deploy its proprietary Pridwen heat shield and on-orbit controls to steer the satellite, and then test its failsafe mechanism, which involves disintegrating the craft in orbit.
IN A NUTSHELL 🔍 Physicists in England discovered two opposing arrows of time in open quantum systems, challenging traditional views. 🌌 The study suggests time can move in both directions at the quantum level, revealing a symmetrical nature. ♻️ Entropy continues to increase in both directions of time, prompting a reevaluation of thermodynamic principles. 🧠.
Superconductivity is an advantageous physical phenomenon observed in some materials, which entails an electrical resistance of zero below specific critical temperatures. This phenomenon is known to arise following the formation of so-called Cooper pairs (i.e., pairs of electrons).
There are two known types of superconductivity, known as conventional and unconventional superconductivity. In conventional superconductors, the formation of Cooper pairs is mediated by the interaction between electrons and phonons (i.e., vibrations in a crystal’s lattice), as explained by Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory.
Unconventional superconductors, on the other hand, are materials that exhibit a superconductivity that is not prompted by electron–phonon interactions. While many past studies have tried to shed light on the mechanisms underpinning unconventional superconductivity, its underlying physics remains poorly understood.
Magnetic-superconducting hybrid systems are key to unlocking topological superconductivity, a state that could host Majorana modes with potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. However, creating stable, controllable interfaces between magnetic and superconducting materials remains a challenge.
Traditional systems often struggle with lattice mismatches, complex interfacial interactions, and disorder, which can obscure the signatures of topological states or mimic them with trivial phenomena. Achieving precise control over magnetic structures at the atomic scale has been a long-standing challenge in this field.
Published in Materials Futures, the researchers developed a novel sub-monolayer CrTe2/NbSe2 heterostructure. By carefully depositing Cr and Te on NbSe2 substrate, they observed a two-stage growth process: an initial compressed Cr-Te layer forms with a lattice constant of 0.35 nm, followed by the formation of an atomically flat CrTe2 monolayer with a lattice constant of 0.39 nm. Annealing the Cr-Te layer can trigger stress-relief reconstruction, which creates stripe-like patterns with edges that host localized magnetic moments, effectively forming one-dimensional magnetic chains.
