IPS Meeting 2019 - Institute of Physics Singapore

Asst. Prof. Tomasz Paterek Division of Physics & Applied Physics Nanyang Technological University	Plenary 1: Non-classicality of uncharacterised objects and processes
	Wednesday, 13 March, 9:30am, Venue: LT2
	When two quantum objects are coupled via mediator their dynamics has traces of non-classical properties of the mediator and of interaction Hamiltonians. I will show how these traces lead to methods revealing non-classical features of objects and processes that remain uncharacterised throughout the assessment. A few applications will be discussed: in opto-mechanics, quantum biology and to probe quantumness of gravity.

Prof. Carl M. Bender Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics at Washington University St. Louis, Missouri, USA	Plenary 2: PT symmetry
	Wednesday, 713 March, 10:15am, Venue: LT2
	By using complex-variable methods one can extend conventional Hermitian quantum theories into the complex domain. The result is a huge and exciting new class of parity-time-symmetric (PT-symmetric) theories whose remarkable physical properties are currently under intense study by theorists and experimentalists. Many theoretical predictions have been verified in recent beautiful laboratory experiments.

Asst. Prof. Vitor M. Pereira Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Department of Physics, NUS	Plenary 3: Charge density wave and superconducting order in TiSe₂ driven by excitonic condensation and its fluctuations
	Thursday, 14 March February, 9:30am, Venue: LT2
	The interplay of charge-density wave (CDW) order and superconductivity (SC) is of perennial interest in condensed matter since the underlying physics might unlock the promise of high-temperature SC. I will present an encompassing theoretical framework that describes how an excitonic instability in two-dimensional TiSe₂ likely underpins the entirety of this compound's experimental phase diagram. In addition to these excitonic degrees of freedom describing extremely well the CDW phase, their fluctuations are shown to induce electronic pairing capable of stabilizing a dome-shaped SC phase at finite doping, as seen experimentally. This work is an important theoretical counterpart to recent experiments in establishing TiSe₂ as an example of the elusive correlated excitonic insulator.
	Work done in collaboration with Chuan Chen, Lei Su, Bahadur Singh, Antonio H. Castro Neto, and Hsin Lin

A/Prof. YANG Hui Ying Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design	Plenary 4: Advanced Two-dimensional Nanomaterials: Synthesis to Applications
	Thursday, 14 March, 10:15am, Venue: LT2
	Advanced two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted significant interest due to their extraordinary physical and chemical properties over the past decade. Understanding and controlling the growth of novel 2D crystal materials is central for the performance of various applications, spanning from electronics to energy storage. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is a key technology we used to develop exceptional nanomaterials and explore their applications in effective energy storage devices as well as scalable water purification. One of the greatest challenges besetting the development of battery technologies is fast charging, especially within flexible or compact designs. We discuss how the design of low dimensional nanostructure can correlate with the ion transportation efficiency, the activity of electrochemical reaction and energy storage based on chemical transformation. We have also studied the prospects of fast prototyping and scalability for 2D materials based devices.

Asst. Prof.
Manas Mukherjee
Centre for Quantum Technologies and Department of Physics,
National University of Singapore

Plenary 5: Sensing and simulation with a single ion

Friday, 15 March, 9:30am, Venue: LT2

Ion trap technology is a forerunner in quantum computing, simulation, sensing and clocks. The versatile application of ion trap setups stem from their ability to control and manipulate single or multiple ions in a near isolated environment with negligible kinetic energy. Two such applications related to fundamental physics [1] and thermodynamics [2] at the quantum scale have been recently demonstrated in our setup. These two applications will be discussed in detail. In the first application we demonstrate that by proper feedback or noise filtering it is possible to preform frequency measurement with precision beyond the Heisenberg limit. The second experiment deals with understanding thermodynamics at the quantum limit. Both the experiments have been carried out using barium ion in a linear Paul trap using protocols engineered for each tasks.

[1]	T. Dutta and M. Mukherjee: Axion dark matter search - an application of quantum metrology, arXiv:1803.01724 (2018).
[2]	N. Van Horne, D. Yum, T. Dutta, G. Jiangbin, P. Hanggi, D. Poletti and M. Mukherjee: Single atom energy-conversion device with a quantum load, arXiv:1812.01303 (2018).

Asst. Prof. Liew Chi Hin Timothy Division of Physics & Applied Physics, Nanyang Technological University	Plenary 6: Artificial life and neuromorphic computing based on exciton-polariton lattices
	Friday, 9 March, 10:15am, Venue: LT2
	Exciton-polaritons are hybrid states of light and matter existing in semiconductor heterostructures. They have been typically studied in planar microcavities containing quantum wells, exhibiting spin-sensitive phenomena such as the optical spin Hall effect and nonlinear effects such as solitons and bistability. More recently, there has been a growing interest in studying exciton-polaritons in patterned lattices, where the interplay of spin-orbit interaction with magnetic field was shown to give rise to topological physics. Furthermore, as we will show, nonlinear interactions in such systems demonstrate complex phenomena, realizing artificial life and artificial neural networks.