A University of Iowa condensed matter and materials physicist has been named a National Science Foundation CAREER scholar, an award given to early-career faculty for research and education.

Ravitej Uppu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will explore the electronic and photonic properties of light-matter interactions at the single-emitter level, enabling the generation of multi-photon entangled states of light. The research is important because there's a need for increased computing power. Photons, serving as quantum interconnects, offer a solution to enhance overall quantum computational power, akin to classical cluster computers.  

“This CAREER award will provide a launchpad for my group’s long-term vision of chip-scale photonic quantum interconnects that could enable modular building blocks in practical quantum technologies,” Uppu says. “The funding will support us in exploring novel material and device-level modeling approaches, coupled with precise experimental characterizations, to mitigate noise in qubits and establish the feasibility of practical photonic quantum interconnects.” 

The five-year award is for $550,000.