Speaker: Dr. Javad Shabani, NYU

Materials Science and Engineering

Spring 2021 Seminar Series 

Dr. Javad Shabani

Department of Physics, New York University

Host: Prof. Kaveh Ahadi

February 5, 2021

Realizing topological superconductivity in planar Josephson junctions

Abstract: Recently there is a great deal of interest to understand and control the order parameter characterizing the collective state of electrons in quantum heterostructures. This is due to the fact that new physical behavior can emerge which is absent in the isolated constituent materials. With regards to superconductivity this has opened a whole new area of investigation in the form of topological superconductivity. Topological superconductors are expected to host Majorana fermions, electronic states with non-abelian statistics that can be used to realize topologically protected quantum information processing. In this talk, we present our progress in developing epitaxial semi-conductor superconductor

heterostructures to host topological superconductivity. We find experimental transport and phase signatures consistent with topological superconductivity using external magnetic field in planar Josephson junctions. These signatures disappear in trivial superconductivity at zero magnetic field.

 Biography: Prof. Shabani received his PhD from Princeton University in 2011. After two years of research on semiconductor-based qubits at Harvard University, he joined UC Santa Barbara. There, he worked closely with Microsoft research on hybrid semiconductors/superconductors heterostructures to study topological superconductivity. He is an expert in quantum materials and devices for computation

technologies. He is currently an assistant professor of Physics at New York University. His current research interests are 1) Novel states of matter at interfaces with focus on hybrid superconductor-semiconductor systems 2) Mesoscopic and nanoscale physics with emphasis on low dimensional semiconductors with focus on new materials/device development for quantum information 3) Physics of integer and fractional quantum Hall effect and 4) Epitaxial growth of compound superconducting metals-semiconductor, including high mobility two-dimensional electron systems and nano-plates using molecular beam epitaxy. Prof. Shabani is recipient of US Air Force Young Investigator award and US Army Young Investigator award.