Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

New Cooling System Heats up Physics Research

Tuesday, September 23, 2014, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesresearch

A physicist in the College of Arts and Sciences has received a major grant to support ongoing work in quantum information science.

Britton Plourde

Britton Plourde

Britton Plourde, associate professor of physics, is the recipient of a $230,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program award from the Army Research Office (ARO). The award enables him to acquire a cryogen-free adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) for the college’s Department of Physics.

“Professor Plourde has achieved prominence through exacting and innovative work with his research team on micro-scale superconducting devices,” says A. Alan Middleton, professor and chair of physics. “This new system allows for even more rapid development of devices for quantum information science.”

Plourde says the new system will reach temperatures as low as 0.04 degrees above absolute zero (i.e., 40 millikelvin).

He also points out the ADR’s first-stage cooling station, known as a cryocooler, is made by Cryomech, a local company that’s a world leader in cryorefrigeration technology.

“This cryocooler provides fully integrated, closed-cycle refrigeration,” says Plourde, an expert in condensed matter physics. “This is extremely important because it reduces our dependence on expensive cryogens for running low-temperature experiments.”

One of Plourde’s projects, led by IBM and funded by the U.S. government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, has him combining multiple superconducting qubits with microwave resonators, in hopes of implementing a quantum algorithm.

Another project, funded by the ARO, involves him developing superconducting amplifiers and metamaterials, with an eye toward creating a scalable readout system for superconducting qubits.

Plourde also has been using National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to study the dynamics of magnetic-flux vortices in superconducting microwave-resonator circuits.

“The combination of this new ADR system with existing refrigerators at Syracuse will expand our low-temperature capabilities and allow us to cool down a greater variety of superconducting circuits,” he says.

Much of Plourde’s research involves developing components for quantum computers—machines that use quantum physics to solve problems much differently from traditional computers. Central to quantum computation is “superposition,” a quality in which a particle may be in two states at once. Superposition often relies on low temperatures to remove thermal effects, which, in turn, tend to destroy quantum states.

“We’re developing new microwave-resonator and detector circuits that allow us to measure the quantum states of superconducting circuits with high fidelity and low overhead, useful for scaling to much larger systems,” Plourde adds.

A Syracuse faculty member since 2005, Plourde is the recipient of both an NSF CAREER Award and IBM Faculty Award. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying vortex dynamics in superconducting films, and then served as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013, Plourde was named editor-in-chief of Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Sociologist Shannon Monnat to Lead Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research
    Monday, May 16, 2022, By Jessica Youngman
  • Student Speaker Ghael Fobes Mora Shared Highlights of the Class of 2022
    Monday, May 16, 2022, By News Staff
  • Maxwell Prepared Mike Tirico ’88 for His ‘Most Challenging Assignment’
    Monday, May 16, 2022, By Jessica Youngman
  • Message From Chancellor Kent Syverud
    Monday, May 16, 2022, By News Staff
  • ‘You Will Do Marvelous Things in the Future’: Chancellor Kent Syverud Speaks to Class of 2022 During Commencement (Video)
    Monday, May 16, 2022, By News Staff

More In STEM

Black Hole Image Shows Einstein Was Right, Once Again

Today a team of astronomers announced they successfully captured the first direct image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Duncan Brown is the Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics at Syracuse University’s College of…

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Professor’s Research Team Receives Multiple Awards at Society for Biomaterials Conference

Biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Mary Beth Monroe attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2022 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, with Ph.D. students Anand Vakil, Henry Beaman, Changling Du and Maryam Ramezani, master’s student Natalie Petryk ’21, G’22 and undergraduate students Caitlyn…

Viewing a Microcosm Through a Physics Lens

“What can physics offer biology?” This was how Alison Patteson, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ physics department and a faculty member in the BioInspired Institute, began the explanation of why her physics lab was studying bacteria. In…

University’s Top Putnam Math Competition Finisher Awarded Inaugural Erdős Prize

Junior Connor Ritchie has won the Department of Mathematics’ inaugural Erdős Prize for being Syracuse University’s top finisher in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. The Putnam contest is the preeminent mathematics competition for undergraduate college students in the United States and Canada,…

Sasha Valitutti Selected as a 2022 SMART Scholar

Sasha Valitutti, a junior aerospace engineering major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has been named a recipient of a Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The award will…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.