Stanford University Departments of Physics & Applied Physics and the Ginzton Laboratory and QFARM Initiative
Our newest experiment is CavMat: Materials in Cavities. The project merges our confocal cavity QED technique with that of the SQCRAMscope, a novel quantum sensor we invented; see below for brief description. We aim to influence, in continuous rather than pulsed manner, the collective excitations of a correlated material. A grand goal is to enhance the critical temperature for superconductivity through the photon-material interaction.
The SQCRAMscope (Scanning Quantum Cryogenic Atom Microscope) uses an ultracold quantum gas as a micron-resolution magnetometer. It is capable of imaging DC electron transport and magnetization in both room-temperature and cryogenically cooled quantum materials with unprecedented sensitivity. This novel microscope was the first example of the direct marriage of ultracold AMO physics with condensed matter physics for the exploration of technologically relevant strongly correlated and topologically nontrivial materials. For example, we used the SQCRAMscope to locally image the electron nematic domains that arise in an iron-pnictide high-Tc superconductor.
News
"Ultracold atoms put high-temperature superconductors under the microscope" appears in Physics…
Phys.org article on our recent work with the SQCRAMscope: "Imaging nematic transitions in iron…
News & Views in Nature Physics on imaging iron superconductors using SQCRAMscope.
First science from SQCRAMscope! We have imaged the electron nematic transport in iron-based…
Dr. Steve Edkins won Institute of Physics prize for best PhD thesis in the field of…
Introducing the SQCRAMscope. ArXiv paper describes new microscope functionality.
Paper on the reconfigurable atom chip trapping of atoms near cryogenic materials published in Appl…
Lev publishes proposal for atom chip microscopy of transport in topological insulators Phys. Rev. B…
Publications
A. N. Bourzutschky, B. L. Lev, and J. Keeling
Raman-phonon-polariton condensation in a transversely pumped cavity
arXiv:2405.05257 pdf
S. F. Taylor, F. Yang, B. A. Freudenstein, and B. L. Lev
A scanning quantum cryogenic atom microscope at 6 K
SciPost Physics 10, 060 (2021). pdf
F. Yang, S. F. Taylor, S. D. Edkins, J. Palmstrom, Ian R. Fisher, and Benjamin L. Lev
Nematic Transitions in Iron-Pnictide Superconductors Imaged with a Quantum Gas
Nature Physics 16, 514 (2020). pdf
Featured in News & Views in Nature Physcis 16, 506 by James Analytis: "Cooking with quantum gas" pdf
Featured in Phys.org in article by Ingrid Fadelli: "Imaging nematic transitions in iron pnictide superconductors" pdf
Featured in Physics World article by Margaret Harris: "Ultracold atoms put high-temperature superconductors under the microscope" pdf
arXiv:1907.12601 pdf
F. Yang, A. J. Kollár, S. F. Taylor, R. W. Turner, and B. L. Lev
A Scanning Quantum Cryogenic Atom Microscope
Physical Review Applied 7, 034026 (2017). pdf
Selected for a Viewpoint in APS Physics:
J. Fortágh and A. Günther, Sensing Magnetic Fields with a Giant Quantum Wave, pdf
M. A. Naides, R. W. Turner, R. A. Lai, J. M. DiSciacca, and B. L. Lev
Trapping ultracold gases near cryogenic materials with rapid reconfigurability
Applied Physics Letters 103, 251112 (2013). pdf
B. Dellabetta, T. L. Hughes, M. J. Gilbert, and B. L. Lev
Imaging topologically protected transport with quantum degenerate gases
Physical Review B 85, 205442 (2012). pdf
B. Lev
Fabrication of Micro-Magnetic Traps for Cold Neutral Atoms
Quantum Information and Computation, Vol. 3, No. 5, 450-464, (2003).
arXiv:quant-ph/0305067; Updated version