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The CPQM is focusing on the development and fabrication of novel materials that would allow for dramatic advances in all three National initiative directions (Technologies of optical and quantum materials for new basic elements of photonics and photonic devices; Technologies for systems and infrastructure development of information transmission, recording, storage and processing; New laser technologies) and lead to new disruptive technologies.

The CPQM Goal is to develop the entire quantum materials development line through creation of several world leading experimental applied research labs that would rapidly put Skoltech onto the international science map.

Professor, Director Franko Küppers. Optical Communication Group. Topics of interest: Optical communication systems, QKD, Atomic Clock/Networking, Radiophotonics (5G, 6G, radar&lidar, ADC, etc.), all-optical signal processing, Optical Computers and Simulator, Bio-medical photonics, Emergency Communication.

Suggested MSс Projects

Suggested PhD Projects

Associate Director Arkadi Shipulin (Chipouline). Photonics Integrated Research Group. Topics of interest: Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) for communication, PICs for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), PIC components for Radiophotonics (5G, 6G, radar&lidar, ADC, etc.), PICs for agricultural and bio-photonics, all-optical signal processing on chip, nano and micro optics, applications of metamaterials.

Suggested MSс Projects

Suggested PhD Projects

Professor Ildar Gabitov: metamaterials, nanophotonics and plasmonics, multiscale phenomena, optical fiber communications, nonlinear waves and their applications, nonlinear optics, theory of integrability and nonlinear PDEs

Project 1 Integrable models of resonant optics

Project 2. Noise reduction in optical fiber system by means of in-line VIXELs

Professor Nikolay Gippius: quantum materials and nanostructures (incl. photon crystalls and metamaterials); nanoplasmonics.

Project 1 RFFI14-02-00778 Electromagnetic modes in anisotropic solid microscopic objects

Participation in the projects

Principle Collaborations

Professor Natalia Berloff: in the coherence in non-equilibrium quantum systems, Bose-Einstein Condensation of exciton-polaritons, magnons, atomic gases; strong light-matter coupling in solid-state systems, finite temperature atomic condensates, driven quantum systems, and superfluid turbulence.

Project 1. Modelling finite temperature superfluids

Details	The detailed understanding of the intricate dynamics of quantum fluids, in particular in the rapidly growing subfield of quantum turbulenceб which elucidates the evolution of a vortex tangle in a superfluid, requires an in-depth understanding of the role of finite temperature in such systems. The Landau two-fluid model is the most successful hydrodynamical theory of superfluid helium, but by the nature of the scale separations it cannot give an adequate description of the processes involving vortex dynamics and interactions. In our research we introduced a framework based on a nonlinear classical-field equation that is mathematically identical to the Landau model and provides a mechanism for severing and coalescence of vortex lines, so that the questions related to the behavior of quantized vortices can be addressed self-consistently. The correct equation of state as well as nonlocality of interactions that leads to the existence of the roton minimum can also be introduced in such description. We applied the ideas developed for finite-temperature description of weakly interacting Bose gases as possible extensions and numerical refinements of the proposed method. We apply this method to elucidate the behavior of the vortices during expansion and contraction following the change in applied pressure. We show that at low temperatures, during the contraction of the vortex core as the negative pressure grows back to positive values, the vortex line density grows through a mechanism of vortex multiplication. This mechanism is suppressed at high temperatures.
Team@Collaborations	Prof Nick Proukakis, University of Newcastle, Prof Marc Brachet, University of Paris.
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	N.G.Berloff, Marc Brachet, and N. Proukakis “Modeling quantum fluid dynamics at nonzero temperatures”, 111, 4675–4682, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, USA (2014)
Potential Impact	Introduced framework allows proper modeling of superfluid and normal fluid behavior and interactions including processes associated with quantized vortices in liquid helium experiments.

Project 2. Optical Superfluid Phase Transitions

Details	Semiconductor microcavities are used to support freely flowing polariton quantum liquids allowing the direct observation and optical manipulation of macroscopic quantum states. Incoherent optical excitation at a point produces radially expanding condensate clouds within the planar geometry. By using arbitrary configurations of multiple pump spots, we discover a geometrically controlled phase transition, switching from the coherent phase-locking of multiple condensates to the formation of a single trapped condensate.
Team@Collaborations	Nanophotonics group of Cavendish (University of Cambridge) led by Prof Jeremy Baumberg.
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Gabriel Christmann, Guilherme Tosi, Natalia G Berloff, Panagiotis Tsotsis, Peter S Eldridge, Zacharias Hatzopoulos, Pavlos G Savvidis, Jeremy J Baumberg “Oscillatory solitons and time-resolved phase locking of two polariton condensates,” New Journal of Physics, 16 (10), 103039 (2014) A Dreismann, P Cristofolini, R Balili, G Christmann, F Pinsker, N G Berloff, Z Hatzopoulos, P G Savvidis, J. J. Baumberg, “Coupled counter-rotating polariton condensates in optically defined annular potentials”, 111(24):8770-5 Proceedings of National Academy of Siences, USA (2014) Cristofolini, A. Dreismann, G. Christmann, G. Franchetti, N.G. Berloff, P. Tsotsis, Z. Hatzopoulos, P.G. Savvidis, J.J. Baumberg “Optical superfluid phase transitions and trapping of polariton condensates, ” Physical Review Letters, 110 , 186403 (2013).
Potential Impact	By creating new types of bosons that are coupled mixtures of optical and electronic states, condensates can be created on a semiconductor chip and potentially up to room temperature. One of the most useful implementations of macroscopic condensates involves forming rings, which exhibit new phenomena because the quantum wave-functions must join up in phase; these are used for some of the most sensitive magnetometer and accelerometer devices known.

Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis (in collaboration with Professor Natalia Berloff)

Project 1. Organic Polaritonics

Project 2. Polariton Simulators

Details	Investigation of polariton graphs as a platform for quantum simulations. Several platforms are currently being explored for simulating physical systems whose complexity increases faster than polynomially with the number of particles or degrees of freedom in the system. Many of these computationally intractable problems can be mapped into classical spin models such as the Ising and the XY models and simulated by a suitable physical system. Here we investigate the potential of polariton graphs as an efficient simulator for finding the global minimum of the classical XY Hamiltonian. By imprinting polariton condensate lattices of bespoke geometries we show that we can simulate a large variety of systems undergoing the U(1) symmetry breaking transitions. We realise various magnetic phases, such as ferromagnetic, anti-ferromagnetic, and frustrated spin configurations on unit cells of various lattices: linear chain, square, triangular and a disordered graph. Our results provide a route to study unconventional superfluids, spin-liquids, Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition, classical magnetism among the many systems that are described by the XY Hamiltonian.
Results/current status	Initial work has led to a high impact paper in PRX (August 2016). An experimental/theoretical paper with polariton graphs as the platform for quantum simulators is now submitted to Nature Materials.
Team@Collaborations	Lagoudakis/Berloff.
External funding	SK-MIT
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Ohadi, R. L. Gregory, T. Freegarde, Y. G. Rubo, A. V. Kavokin, N. G. Berloff, and P. G. Lagoudakis. Nontrivial Phase Coupling in Polariton Multiplets.- Phys. Rev. X 6, 031032 (26 August 2016). N.G. Berloff, K.Kalinin, M. Silva, W. Langbein, and P. G. Lagoudakis “Realizing the XY Hamiltonian in polariton simulators,” in review, ArXiv:1607.06065 (2016)
Potential Impact	Polariton driven quantum simulator.

Professor Albert Nasibulin specializes in the aerosol synthesis of nanomaterials (nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and tetrapods), investigation of their growth mechanism and their applications. At the moment his main recent research topic is devoted to transparent, flexible, stretchable and conductive single-walled CNT films and their applications.

Project 1. Solar sells on heterojunctions CNT/silica

Details	The efficiency of 1.5% obtained by us for this kind of a structure is state of the art till date [(1.) Solid State Commun. 150 561–3, (2) Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 183113].
Objectives for 2016	Optimization of interface between CNT/a-Si layers, and device architecture for higher conversion efficiency. Fabrication of SWCNT/a-Si heterostructures. Extending SWCNT as front contact replacing the traditional TCO/metal owing to its very promising opto-electrical properties. Preparation and paper publication of the research results in an international scientific journal indexed in the Scopus data base, or in “WEB of science”.
Results/current status	The current status is as follows: Dry and chemical etching of thick native oxide layer on a-Si. Surface treatment of a-Si. Interface engineering between a-Si and SWCNT for optimizing the energy levels. Doping of SWCNT for higher conductivity retaining the transparency. Modifying SWCNT for exploring the possibility to replace traditional metal grids as front contacts.
Team and Collaborations	Dr. Sergei Bereznev, Tallinn University of Technology.Department of Materials Science Dr. Oleg Sergeev, R&D Manager New Technologies, Division Photovoltaics, NEXT ENERGY
External funding	H2020 program – ERA-NET
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Adinath M. Funde, Albert G. Nasibulin, Hashmi Gufran Syed, Anton S. Anisimov, Alexey Tsapenko, Peter Lund, J. D. Santos, I. Torres, J. J. Gandía, J. Cárabe, and A. D. Rozenberg, Igor A. Levitsky (2016) Carbon nanotube – amorphous silicon hybrid solar cell with improved conversion efficiency. Nanotechnology. 27(18) 185401 (6pp)
Potential Impact	The efficiency of 1.5% obtained by us for this kind of a structure is state of the art till date [(1.) Solid State Commun. 150 561–3, (2) Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 183113]. The fabrication of the proposed solar cell partially eliminates the complex, expensive vacuum techniques and replace with very simple dry transfer technique [ACS Nano 5 3214–21] of high quality pristine SWCNT. Moreover, these SWCNT owing to its opto-electrical properties are very promising to replace the conventional TCO/ITO as front and back contacts. This leads the way to extending CNT for exploring the possibility of an ‘All Carbon solar cell’. Thus, making the structure very economical, environmentally stable and less hazardous.

Project 2. Artificial nose on the basis of CNT matrix

Details	Development of high-precision compact gas sensor based on carbon nanotubes using the features of artificial neural networks for processing signals from various gas mixtures with different concentrations. The main idea based on the fact that pristine and chemically processed carbon nanotubes (CNT:) are very sensitive to different gas concentrations. The electrical properties of these structures strongly depend on the surrounding atmosphere. The artificial neural networks are proposed to be used for processing combination of electrical signals from CNT sensors treated in a different way.
Objectives for 2016	Start experiments on electrical engineering and chemical treatment of carbon nanotubes. Launch of equipment and start measurements.
Results/current status	In progress (starts in the end of 2016), funded by Skoltech. Under going search and hire of a postdoc and PhD stidents. Almost all of the necessary equipment has already been purchased: gas distribution system for creation of different gas mixtures, temperature controlled stage Linkam for electrical measurements in different temperatures and surrounding gases, commutator Keysight. Purchasing of plasma treater for CNT processing is planned in the nearest future.
Team and Collaborations	Albert Nasibulin (PI); Postdoc (electrical engineering, general management) – to be hired; Ph.D. student (chemical processing); MS Student (experiments for neural network learning)
External funding	Additional funding provided to Res3arch package
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Not yet
Potential Impact	Artificial nose is very promising technology which can be applied in different R&D and technical areas such as quality control (detection of contamination and spoilage; monitoring of storage conditions), process and production (comparison with a reference product, measurement and comparison of the effects of manufacturing process on product, scale-up monitoring), health and security (quality control of food products, detection of dangerous and harmful contamination, detect odourless chemicals) etc.

Project 3. Stretchable electronic components based on nanomaterials

Details	Developed a prototype of transparent supercapacitor with a specific capacitance of 17.5 F g-1, which can be stretched up to 120% with practically no variation in the electrochemical performance after 1000 stretching cycles and 1000 charging-discharging cycles.
Objectives for 2016	Develop working prototype of stretchable device based on piezo-generator film (PVDF) and supercapacitors. Study of optical, electrical and mechanical properties of stretchable electrodes made of CNT films. Apply to STRIP Skoltech contest 2016 with the project on piezo-supercap device. Patent submission on piezo-supercap device.
Results/current status	Almost in progress (in 2015). All the necessary equipment is purchased and delivered (tensile testing mechanical device, tensile stage for SEM measurements and investigation), delivery of Test Cell (Japan) by the end of 2016 is expected. STRIP proposal was submitted in 2015 and passed to a final stage of the contest, proposal was one of the finalist of “Green Chip” contest by ROSNANO.
Team@Collaborations	Albert Nasibulin (Principal Inviestigator)Team: Evgenia Gilshteyn, Daler Amanbaev, Vladislav Tkachuk; Collaborators: Tania Kallio, Research Group of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University; Ekaterina Fedorovskaya, Nikolaev Institute of Inorganic Chemistry Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences; Maxim Silibin, MIET (National Research University of Electronic Technology).
External funding	N/A
Publications by team members related to the project and with the Skoltech affiliations	Evgenia P. Gilshteyn, Tanja Kallio, Petri Kanninen, Ekaterina Fedorovskaya, Anton S. Anisimov, Albert G. Nasibulin (2016) Stretchable and transparent supercapacitors based on aerosol synthesized single-walled carbon nanotube films. RSC Advances 2016, Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1039/C6RA20319A
Potential Impact	Transparent energy conversion and storage devices have recently attracted increasing attention due to their great potential as integrated power sources for displays and windows in buildings, automobiles and aerospace vehicles. On the other hand, mechanical stretchability coupled with optical transparency of the energy storage devices is required for many other applications, ranging from self-powered rolled-up displays to self-powered wearable optoelectronics. The design of highly stretchable devices is an essential element in the development of many unprecedented applications such as electronic skin and smart energy storage clothes. Portable and wearable supercapacitors, coupled with either self-healability or stretchability, have particularly become a mainstream in the personalized electronics. In addition, aerosol synthesized and collected on a filter SWCNTs can be effectively transferred to any substrate, including stretchable substrate materials such as PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane). They fulfil all the requirements for low-cost, stretchable and transparent electronics.

Project 4. Ultrasound generation using free-standing carbon nanotube films

Project 5. Synthesis of single wall nanotubes with controlled chirality

Project 6. Doping of the single wall nanotubes for improvement of transparent electronic devices

Associate Professor Boris Fine is specializing in the field of Solid-State Physics. His research interests include solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, high-temperatures superconductivity, and a broader set of topics associated with the foundations of quantum statistical physics and the role of chaos in many-particle systems.

Project 1. Investigations of high-temperature superconductors

Project 2. Dynamic thermalization

Professor Mikhail Skvortsov’s research interests lie in the field of contemporary low-temperature condensed matter physics, with particular emphasis on quantum-coherent phenomena in complex systems in the presence of disorder, interaction and fluctuations. His recent research activity is related with the physics of strongly disordered superconductors and chiral metals, nonequilibrium superconductivity, electron transport in quantum wires, and Anderson localization of Majorana fermions.

Project 1. Quantum materials for superconducting nanophotonics

Project 2. Fluctuation superconductivity in the clean limit

Project 3. Density of states in inhomogeneous superconductors

Project 4. Many-body localization in quantum dots

Project 5. Quantum transport in topological insulators and superconductors

To review the Project 1.4 Materials and photonics devices based on low dimensional quantum systems with industrial and academic partners please, click here

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