Who's Behind the Curtain?

When thinking about quantum computing, processing, mechanics or any other type of quantum physics, many of us are reminded of names like, Galileo, Newton or Einstein.  While these individuals were pioneers in their respective fields, hundreds of others offered great contributions to the science.  Today’s cast of industry leading physicists include minds like Steven Hawkins, author of A Brief History of Time and Michio Kaku, author of Physics of the Impossible.  Both experts in Theoretical Physics, they have demonstrated remarkable understandings of the world of Physics as well as captured the world’s attention by using main stream media to convey their ideas.  While these men stand as pillars in the industry, the works of scholars like Yong P. Chen, while not widely popular, are some of the driving factors behind current advancement in quantum computing.

Associate Professor Young P. Chen is a lead Physicist at Purdue University with expertise in areas including physics, mathematics and nanotechnology.  Professor Chen began his career in IBM’s Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland in the summer of 1998 and continued his contributions to other institutes of higher learning including the Grenoble High Field Laboratory and Rice University.  He began his tenure at Purdue University in 2007 and is currently working on projects involving low dimensional physics, topological insulators, spintronics, and several others.  The latter two have offered amazing results in the area of quantum computing and, in a sense, revitalized efforts into its research.  For the first time in years, scientists can see substantial returns at a potentially large enough scale to yield promising results.

While leading a team of researchers at Purdue University, Professor Chen, along with his team, discovered a material potentially capable of maintaining quantum cohesion at substantial scales.  Cohesion is the ability of a particle to maintain its quantum state.  Without cohesion, quantum computing is not possible and scientists, throughout the industry invest a large majority of their time into solving the challenge of maintaining cohesion.  Chen and his team’s discovery of topological insulators may be the answer or “smoking gun” (as described by Yang Xu, a member of Chen’s team) to unraveling the mystery of cohesion.

Currently Chen and his team are working, along with other Universities including Princeton and the University of Texas in an effort to understand better the material and determine the most efficient approach for producing it.  One of the most remarkable characteristic of this material is its lack of mass.  While, historically, the mass of a quantum insulator had a direct correlation with its ability to maintain cohesion, currently, with this material, that does not seem to be the case.  Topological insulators work by conducting a unique type of electron containing no mass due to “spin-polarization.”  This unique process is the major focus of “Splitronics”, study at the heart of Professor Chen’s research.  With current momentum and continued success, Young P. Chen may be the next name we jump to when considering the breakthroughs of an era.

Purdue Science, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy, People, Faculty, Yong P. Chen, Retrieved from http://www.physics.purdue.edu/people/faculty/yongchen.html