Ihar Lobach

Lead author Kamyar Rashidi (Sfeir lab), Professor Matthew Y. Sfeir (CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative), and additional members of the Sfeir lab have found a way to use special light-matter states called Bloch surface wave polaritons to improve how molecules transfer electric charge. Read about it in Nature Nanotechnology! https://bit.ly/3HBbglh The Graduate Center, City University of New York

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Variational Diagrammatic Monte Carlo Enables First-Principles Superconductivity Calculations Scientists have developed a new computational method that accurately predicts superconductivity, even at extremely low temperatures, by directly calculating the interactions between electrons and vibrations within materials, resolving a century-old gap in the understanding of this phenomenon. #quantum #quantumcomputing #technology https://lnkd.in/e3abWtPW

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We’re excited to share that our paper, "Exploring Chemical Space with Chemistry-Inspired Dynamic Quantum Circuits in the NISQ Era," is featured as the front cover of the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation #JCTC (July 8, 2025 issue)! This work presents a compact quantum molecular generator that efficiently samples valid molecular structures with just 134 parameters, demonstrating the potential of quantum computing in accelerating molecular and materials discovery. Congrats to #Lung-Yi Chen! 📖 Read the full paper: https://lnkd.in/guDgFpQp 🎨 Cover image below #QuantumComputing #MolecularDesign #AIForScience #ChemicalSpace #JCTC #PEESE

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Now published at PRX Quantum: Dr. Arian Vezvaee (Lidar group postdoc) leads a team including Dr. Vinay Tripathi (former Lidar group PhD student) and Dr. Daria Kowsari (LFL postdoc) to show how the way you compile a quantum circuit can strongly affect the performance of the processor. On almost all superconducting QPUs, the native 1Q operation is a rotation about an axis in the x-y plane. The axes are defined arbitrarily in a rotating frame--we just reference them to the phase of the microwave drive. Changing the drive phase changes the axis of rotation. This allows us to do X gates and Y gates (or general rotations) just by changing that phase. This is equivalent to rotating the coordinate system about the z axis by an angle theta, which we represent as R_z(-theta). This is called a virtual Z gate. It does not physically change the qubit state--rather, it changes subsequent gates by redefining x and y. The virtual Z gate is incredibly useful because it is instant and error-free. In fact, you only need an X/2 gate and virtual Z rotations to make any single-qubit gate. HOWEVER, it turns out that it really matters how you use the virtual Z! Say you want to do a Y gate. You can can use Y = X R_z(-pi), so do a -pi rotation about z and a pi rotation about x and get the same unitary as a pi rotation about y. But the actual PHYSICAL operation you did to the qubit was an Xbar gate (rotation about the x axis by negative pi), plus you redefined the axes. This is VERY different physically from a rotation about y by pi! We call this an asymmetric compilation. On the other hand, if you do Y = R_z(pi/2) X R_z(-pi/2), a symmetric compilation, the physical operation IS the same as a real Y gate. Why do we care? Well, the qubit isn't the only thing around! Specifically, there's an environment the qubit interacts with, and the environment has no idea you've done a virtual Z rotation. So if you're using dynamical decoupling (sequences of gates that multiply out to the identity operator but anticommute with some system-bath coupling, thus canceling out the environmental interaction) to preserve coherence, it really matters that you do the correct operation! This is especially true when using robust DD sequences, where the operation is correct (to some order) even if the gates themselves are miscalibrated. This robustness depends on the gates being correct! We show that using symmetric compilation correctly implements DD, while asymmetric compilation can drastically change the DD sequence and cause it to lose its robustness and lose the ability to cancel some operations. This means that many past DD results on QPUs that use asymmetric compilation (including IBM hardware) may be misleading! We stop short of saying there's a right way and a wrong way to do this, but speaking only for myself, the symmetric compilation is the right way! Anyway, read and enjoy! https://lnkd.in/gtF372ND

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JAAS is excited to introduce Ali Safi as one of our Young Analytical Scientists! Ali Safi's path into spectroscopy began with hands-on experiments during his Master’s at Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, where he later earned his PhD in Photonics. Since 2012, he has advanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), from double-pulse detection to plasma characterization, and gained international research experience in Italy and Germany. He has authored several publications, served as a reviewer, and received multiple fellowships. Now a Research Scientist at UMass Lowell, he develops spectroscopy and machine-learning methods for biomedical applications, with the long-term goal of creating practical diagnostic tools Read Ali’s review: Tag-laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (Tag-LIBS): progress and prospects ➡️ https://lnkd.in/esWq2FqG #JAASYAS25

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🌟 SSE Researcher Spotlight 🌟 Istvan Kiss, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, coauthored a new paper in Science Advances (June 2025) titled “Frequency Synchronization Induced by Frequency Detuning.” 🧠🔬 The study shows that, contrary to traditional beliefs, non-identical systems—like circadian clocks and coupled lasers—can achieve better synchronization through frequency detuning. This insight has big implications for how we understand and optimize biological and physical systems. 📰 Read the full paper: ] https://loom.ly/JZexKj0 #SSE #Chemistry #Research #Synchronization

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New research from #OPG_OpEx lays the foundation for employing deployable interferometric imagers in scenarios where mass and volume are critical: https://bit.ly/3HRJIbg The implementation of synthetic aperture interferometry using PICs shows great promise for developing miniaturized high-resolution imaging systems, especially in space optics and precision metrology. To overcome existing challenges with restricted baseline reconfigurability, a team from 西安电子科技大学 introduced a hybrid fiber-PIC architecture that allows for continuous baseline adjustment ranging from 10 mm to 50 mm, using dynamically tunable fiber delay lines. Written by: Zihao Wang, Jiamu Xu, Li JIn, Yanling Sun, Dahua Gao, Jiali Liao, Guangming Shi, and Huailiang Xu #technology #2D #imaging #PICs

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