The Moore Foundation’s Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative promotes exploratory, high-impact research in quantum materials, including materials synthesis, experiment and theory. One of the initiative’s strategies is to drive innovation by supporting high-risk projects with the potential to make breakthroughs in the field. These flexible funding grants also serve to enable swift responses to new developments in quantum materials.

The initiative portfolio of flexible grants currently consists of seven projects with four more on the way, and uses an open call for ideas with the next call opening on April 4, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Since starting this grant making strategy in 2020, the initiative team has been intentional about ways to reduce implicit bias in the grant selection process and has settled on a dual-anonymous review system where both applicants’ and reviewers’ identities are hidden. Visit the initiative page or the application portal for further details about the review process. 

“I am excited to see the impact these seven leading-edge projects will have in the quantum materials community.”

Amalia Fernandez Panella, Ph.D., science program officer, Moore Foundation

Learn about some of our EPiQS flexible funding grantees below


Ania Javich and Andrew Lucas

Ania Jayich

Professor, University of California Santa Barbara

Andrew Lucas

Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder

Drs. Jayich and Lucas aim to image the nanoscale flow of electrons in strongly correlated two-dimensional materials and other low-dimensional systems using nitrogen-vacancy center scanning microscopy with 5-nanometer spatial resolution, as well as develop new theoretical methods to analyze these images within the frameworks of strange metals, electron hydrodynamics, and quantum criticality. Their work could provide a unique perspective on long-standing mysteries of electric transport in materials, including Planckian dissipation, a linear temperature dependence of the electron scattering rate rather than the quadratic one predicted by the standard theory of metals, observed in the strange metal phase in many strongly correlated materials.  

Bogdan Bernevig and Oskar Vafek

Bogdan Bernevig 

Professor, Physics Department, Princeton University

Oskar Vafek

Professor, Physics Department, Florida State University

Drs. Bernevig and Vafek are working on developing a comprehensive and predictive theory of correlated electrons in twisted two-dimensional materials, particularly twisted bilayer graphene. The project's primary focus will be identifying conditions favorable for fractional topological states at zero applied magnetic fields.

Fahad Mahmood

Fahad Mahmood

Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

Dr. Mahmood aims to develop a cryogenic double angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy instrument, which has the potential to measure the energy and momentum of entangled pairs of electrons emitted from a material upon absorption of a single photon. The spectrometer will determine two-particle spectral functions and directly identify the origin of electron pairing and correlated phases in quantum materials such as high-temperature superconductors and strange metals. 

James Hone and Cory Dean

James Hone 

Wang Fong-Jen Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University

Cory Dean

Professor of Physics, Columbia University

Drs. Hone and Dean aim to develop and implement new techniques for rapid in-situ twist angle and strain tuning at the interfaces between atomically thin materials. These techniques will take advantage of the low friction at these interfaces to use electrical signals to drive motion. Tuning the properties of the interfaces could allow precise exploration of twist-dependent quantum phases, such as superconductivity, and has the potential of creating a new class of electro-mechanical devices that can be used as tunable circuit components.

Jenny Hoffman

Jenny Hoffman

Clowes Professor of Science, Harvard University 

Dr. Hoffman is developing a novel microscope with zeptowatt power sensitivity (10-21 watts) to image atomic-scale energy dissipation in quantum materials by measuring the oscillations of a scanned micro-cantilever that swings above the sample surface like a tiny pendulum. Dr. Hoffman’s goals range from understanding the role of fluctuations in new phases of matter to quantifying losses for classical or quantum computing.

Jing Xiai

Jing Xia

Professor, University of California Irvine

Dr. Xia aims to develop a unique interferometric magneto-optic Kerr effect spectrometer in the terahertz frequency range with an unprecedented precision of 10-8 radians. The instrument will cover characteristic energy scales relevant to some of the most exciting quantum materials, including topological insulators and twisted bilayer graphene, which can provide important insights into the intricate emerging phases of matter in these systems.

Ye Damascelli Bonn Franz Burke

Ziliang Ye 

Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia

Andrea Damascelli

Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia

Douglas Bonn

Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia 

Marcel Franz

Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia

Sarah Burke

Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia        

In this project, Dr. Ye and four UBC co-investigators are exploring atomically thin twisted cuprate structures, which have been predicted to be the first topological superconductor with a high superconducting transition temperature. Topological superconductors can host Majorana bound states whose braiding operation can protect quantum information against decoherence, which may have profound implications for quantum computing.

Request for ideas

Application to submit ideas for the 2023 flexible funding grants opens on April 4, 2023. More information is available on the Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Materials Initiative page.  

 

 

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