New CoE for the University of Jyväskylä: Centre of Excellence in Quantum Materials lays foundation for future technologies

Kaisa Miettinen, Vice Rector for Research at the University of Jyväskylä, is pleased with the University's success in the competition for CoEs:

“I am truly delighted and proud of our researchers’ success. It is wonderful to welcome two new members to the Centre of Excellence family. As well as providing resources, Centre of Excellence status increases visibility and the impact of research." 

"I would like to warmly congratulate the research groups on their commendable work and wish them every success as Centres of Excellence. This kind of long-term funding enables new creative research and the taking of research risks, while opening up new avenues of science,” says Kaisa Miettinen.

The Research Council of Finland’s Centres of Excellence are among the best in their fields internationally. The CoEs are selected for a period of eight years and they are funded by the Research Council of Finland, universities and research institutes.

Starting next year, the University of Jyväskylä will lead four CoEs.

CoE in Quantum Materials lays foundation for future materials technologies

Led by the University of Jyväskylä, the new Centre of Excellence in Quantum Materials (QMAT) applies modern quantum information methods to characterise quantum materials and seek ways to exploit their new properties in electronics and photonics applications.

The consortium is lead by Professor Tero Heikkilä from the Department of Physics and the Nanoscience Center at University of Jyväskylä. The consortium includes researchers from Aalto University, Tampere University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The goals of the CoE include studying hybrid 2D materials, ferroelectricity, multiferroics, superconductivity, atomic-scale optics, spin liquids, fractional Chern insulators, the role of quantum geometry in characterising the response of quantum materials, preparing virtual materials with quantum computers, and finding device functionalities based on superconducting and/or ferroelectric hybrid structures.

All of our individual goals are truly challenging and ambitious, and achieving them requires a cooperation structure that is based on long-term funding, such as a CoE,” says Tero Heikkilä. 

“We have a really strong consortium, and I am confident that we will achieve most of our goals and also something completely new and unexpected.”

The CoE’s basic research will advance Finland’s robust quantum technology sector, creating new types of materials and functionalities for use in electronics and photonics.

Nevertheless, at the heart of the CoE is the pure goal of finding out what kinds of electronic states of matter can exist,” says Heikkilä.

The Centre of Excellence in Quantum Materials complements the University of Jyväskylä's strong research in quantum technology. The University is part of the Finnish Quantum Flagship consortium and related doctoral pilot in quantum technology. One of the new profiling areas for research at the University of Jyväskylä is quantum simulations and measurements for nanotechnology (qSime), which applies quantum computing to the simulation of nanomaterials.