主要研究 今天

肖娜Hollen, 物理学副教授, has been named to The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s 2024 cohort of 实验物理研究员. The prestigious honor and funding will advance understanding of the link between charge density waves and quantum dots, two physical phenomena that could lead to improvements in quantum computing.

Charge density waves are regular patterns of charge that form in some crystals and can lead to some intriguing behavior, including superconductivity — a state in which current can flow with zero resistance, 但只有在极低的温度下. Hollen’s work will manipulate these nanoscale charge patterns to potentially create a new class of engineerable qubits — basic units of information in quantum computing — that could operate near room temperature.

霍伦获得摩尔基金会的荣誉还附有1美元.在未来五年内拨款2500万美元. 她会推进这个 研究 通过资助博士后研究员和博士.D. 学生，每人三年. Her lab will also purchase some equipment necessary for characterizing and manipulating the two-dimensional materials they study: an atomic force microscope and state-of-the-art glove boxes that use a nitrogen atmosphere. 

“These materials are air-sensitive so we need to be able to manipulate them in air-free environment,她说。.

Hollen is grateful to the Moore Foundation for supporting work she says is “riskier and more creative” than 研究 generally funded by federal agencies. The Experimental Physics Investigator honor specifically supports “novel and potentially high-payoff projects that will advance the field of physics but might be hard to fund through traditional funding sources.”

“The ideas that I put forward [in my proposal] haven’t been demonstrated. 这不是别人在做的事情,她说。, 添加, “能够获得摩尔基金会的奖项，我感到非常荣幸.”