| NSF Org: |
ITE Innovation and Technology Ecosystems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 31, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 14, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2040620 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Pradeep Fulay
pfulay@nsf.gov (703)292-2445 ITE Innovation and Technology Ecosystems TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2020 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $785,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $785,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CAMBRIDGE MA US 02139-4301 (617)253-1000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
77 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge MA US 02139-4307 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Convergence Accelerator Resrch |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future. This project seeks to develop approaches that address issues of decoherence and crosstalk by scalable topological superconductors (TSC). Investigation for achieving realistic large-scale quantum computers is required to advance the field of quantum information science. This project will integrate Majorana zero modes (MZMs) into conventional superconducting qubit architectures to advance their application to quantum computing. By having outreach programs towards K-12 students and research experiences for undergraduates, this project will broaden participation in quantum with a focus on underrepresented minorities.
The project will build and establish a cross-sector team that will develop advances in controlling the topological nature of materials to advance quantum computing to deliver fault-tolerant qubits and their quantum interconnects. This project seeks (1) to understand and demonstrate the non-local topological nature of the MZMs by detecting the electron teleportation through a pair of MZMs; (2) to establish the basic elements for measuring the parity state in a teleportation-based T-qubit; (3) to explore flux quantization caused by a supercurrent loop that is mediated by the MZMs and set up the basic flux (or pseudo-spin) measurements of a T-qubit; (4) to identify and plan the Phase II research program, and (5) to build a strong team of academic, governmental lab, and industrial partners. Building on recent developments of a new TSC material platform, this project aims to demonstrate the quantum nature and the non-local topological protection of MZMs in the platform as well as build topological qubits that can be integrated into existing quantum computing circuitry. This may lead to greater functionality in superconducting circuits which can significantly advance topological quantum computing. The project deliverable includes a platform supporting topological qubit that is more robust and more scalable. By establishing a nationwide student exchange program and outreach activities to K-12 students, this project seeks to engage students in quantum research and training to broaden participation.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Outcome Report
Team C-620
During the Phase-I of NSF Convergence Accelerator Track C program, we have obtained key results that are crucial to both the intellectual merits and broader impacts of our team. The outcomes are listed below.
The goal of team C-620 in Phase-I was to establish a foundation for building the next generation quantum hardware, operating based on pairs of exotic quantum particles known as Majorana zero modes (MZMs), that is intrinsically robust against quantum errors – thereby laying a foundation to fault tolerant quantum computing. We aimed to forge a strong convergence effort involving pioneering scientists from research universities, industrial partners, government defense lab, and minority serving institutions to streamline the delivery of our end-user product in Phase-II (NSF declined funding!). At the same time, we emphasize on the training/building a national quantum-literate workforce.
We have successfully established a strong team during the Phase-I prototype interviews. We have partnered with IBM, the industrial leader in quantum computing, to co-develop the needed hardware towards MZMs based topological qubits (T-qubits) for the next generation fault-tolerant quantum computing. In particular, the scientists from IBM Zurich lab who are pioneers in the field of MZMs have agreed to open their full lab resources to endorse our program. Further, we have successfully partnered with Lincoln Lab (a government funded defense lab) and initiated a newly seed funded matching program to assist our efforts. While Lincoln Lab has been known to its strong program on conventional quantum computing, they are extremely excited in developing the T-qubit together with us. Moreover, during the prototype interviews, many companies including Ford, General Electric (GE), AMD and Goldman Sacks, have shown strong interest on the product to be delivered by our program. In fact, several companies are willing to extend their support to our program by providing additional funding beyond the Phase-II period.
In addition to industrial partners, we have successfully paired with multiple university quantum centers to co-develop the Phase-II program, including the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute of University of British Colombia and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) of University of Waterloo. They are all opening their infrastructures and become actively involved members in our Phase-II proposal. Particularly among these universities, we have successfully combined with other two Phase-I Track-C teams focusing on both research (UT Austin) and workforce training program targeting quantum literacy by initiating a new Q-STEM outreach program (Morgan State University, a minority serving institute).
We have obtained several scientific achievements in Phase-I. Within only 9 months of support, we have successfully developed a new material platform for topological superconductor with several-fold larger energy gap, which is expected to host more robust MZMs and reduce the error rate in a T-qubit. Further, we have confirmed the theory predictions made by our team members and delivered prototypical nano devices for building a T-qubit. The manuscripts containing these key results are under preparation. A patent regarding thorough road-map towards an operating T-qubit using gold platform is published (patent granted). Furthermore, theorists in our team have developed new scheme for robust topological superconductor and T-qubit, and provided improved and more doable schemes for building and operating a T-qubit. During the short (9 months) Phase-I program, we submitted three papers and have two more under preparation. We delivered 11 talks attracting a lot of attention from a broad range of worldwide audience.
Given all of the above this highly promising and transformational program is worthy of further support.
Last Modified: 10/06/2021
Modified by: Jagadeesh S Moodera
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