[ScientiFika] When a Superconductor Learned to Tunnel
by
Floor 6 - Fika Area
AlbaNova Main Building
When a Superconductor Learned to Tunnel: A Brief History of the Birth of Circuit QED
Although intimately linked to quantum mechanics, superconductivity was for decades understood largely through the classical behavior of macroscopic variables. Only after a long sequence of experiments did its genuinely quantum nature become manifest. This talk traces that transformation from the early studies of superconductivity and the discovery of the Josephson effect to the first observation of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the superconducting phase by Devoret, Martinis, and Clarke, the discovery recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. This pivotal result showed that the superconducting phase, a single parameter representing the collective state of an enormous number of electrons, behaves as a true quantum variable. The talk will then explore how this realization led to circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), where superconducting circuits act as artificial atoms coupled to microwave photons, laying the foundations of today’s superconducting quantum technologies.
Note: This event is open to the junior audience only, including undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students, as well as postdocs.
ScientiFika