EQUATE: Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies

Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies EQUATE

NSF Award Announcement

Watch EQUATE Grant Celebration

A banner placed outside Jorgensen Hall with a photo of the EQUATE leaders that reads: Congrats to Nebraska EPSCoR-EQUATE on a $20M NSF Award.

EQUATE’s main research goal is to bring Nebraska to the forefront of scientific discoveries and innovation in the design, synthesis, growth, and use of materials and hybrid systems with large-scale quantum properties for applications in sensing, metrology, communication, and information processing.

This project focuses on research and workforce development to advance knowledge on topics related to quantum materials, technologies, and computation. Quantum materials are a new class of materials that exhibit quantum phenomena at macroscopic length scales and are expected to advance the technological landscape through the advent of quantum technologies. These new technologies will revolutionize fields such as information technology, medical technology, and cryptography, with an impact on security areas such as defense and banking.

EQUATE consolidates the quantum science and technology expertise of 20 faculty researchers across four Nebraska research institutions, establishing collaboration and feedback between theory and experiment to guide discoveries and expedite the findings of new emergent quantum materials and phenomena.

EQUATE News

EQUATE team member gains funding to grow minority opportunities in quantum sensing

Abdelghani Laraoui, a research group leader with Nebraska EPSCoR’s EQUATE collaboration on quantum materials science, is collaborating with Jackson State University (JSU) faculty on a new U.S. National Science Foundation award through NSF’s ExpandQISE program. QISE is an acronym for Quantum Information Science and Engineering.
The newly funded project, Collaboration on Quantum Sensing Research and Education for Minority Participants, includes a three-year award of $800,000 to help train dozens of African-American youth while developing America’s expertise in quantum sensing.
The project, launching in October 2024, plans to mentor 80 graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 minority participants from JSU and nearby community colleges and K-12 schools during its three-year term. The goal is to provide comprehensive training in quantum biosensing through QISE coursework and the use of diamond quantum microscopy—a specialty of Laraoui, an assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

In his lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering, Abdelghani Laraoui works on improving scientific materials and processes for quantum sensing applications.

L-shaped metamaterials can control light direction and identify, sort molecules

Researchers fabricated an optical element that uses a forest of tiny, antenna-like nanorods, seen here, that together create a metamaterial able to control the spin of light. The metamaterial nanorods appear to be shaped like the letter “L” when seen at the nanoscale.

Nebraska-developed quantum sensing technique could facilitate advances in multiple fields

New material design for transistors could downsize next-gen tech

Xia Hong (left), professor of physics, with doctoral advisee Yifei Hao at a lab in Jorgensen Hall.

EQUATE-funded paper makes cover of Advanced Physics Research

The cover image is accompanied by photos of researchers Christian Binek and Peter Dowben.

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Participating Institutions

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OIA-2044049. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.