Seminars 2025

More accurate control and reduced losses are needed for superconducting circuits to move beyond the current NISQ era in quantum computing applications and to devise better detectors. In this talk I will discuss some recent advances and their impacts on designing superconducting devices. After briefly reviewing the standard tunnel model of a Josephson junction, I will introduce a more realistic model which is needed to accurately describe qubit spectroscopic data [1]. Next, I will show how a form of so-called “gap engineering’’, in which the values of the superconducting gap on the two sides of a junction are properly chosen, can mitigate errors related to quasiparticles [2,3]. Finally, I will consider the role of pair-breaking photons in limiting a resonator quality factor [4].

[1] D. Willsch et al., Nat. Phys. 20, 815–821 (2024)
[2] G. Marchegiani et al., PRX Quantum 3, 040338 (2022)
[3] J. Krause et al., Phys. Rev. Applied 22, 044063 (2024)
[4] P. B. Fischer and G. Catelani, SciPost Phys. 17, 070 (2024)

Indico (with zoom link) - slides -  video recording

The Sensors & Devices (S&D) Centre at FBK in Trento Italy combines scientific excellence with the ability to enhance research results through an innovation model that is open to collaboration within national and international competence networks. Recently this has been enhanced both by the PNRR and the European initiatives of IPCEI ME/CT and the Chips JU Pilot lines, resulting in a renewal and enhancement of capabilities. The SD centre aims to deliver excellent research in sensors and devices based around silicon and other semiconductor micro and nano-fabrication. Core to delivering this is 1400 m2 (being expanded to ~2100 m2) ISO4-6 cleanroom which can both act for research and prototyping and deliver small-medium production of bespoke sensors and devices. Research activities are centred (but not exclusively) around the scientific pillars of quantum science & technology, space science & industry, big science (including HEP, synchrotrons, high power lasers, fusion, etc) and health and the environment. S&D aims to stimulate innovation by building a networked system that involves companies, research institutes, universities, public entities, and end users. During the seminar, the speaker will describe current projects of the centre highlighting the active collaboration with different research infrastructures including the Department of Physics of the University of Milano – Bicocca, INFN, and CNR. The speaker has collaborated successfully with the department of physics for the past 15 years.

Indico (with zoom link) - slides -  video recording

Starting from as early as the 70s, simulating rare structural rearrangements of macromolecules with computational methods such as Molecular Dynamics (MD) has been an outstanding problem. Despite many technological and theoretical advancement, simulations still struggle to surpass the millisecond time regime when many key rare events occur. In recent years, the potential utility of Quantum Computers (QC) for a multitude of problems has attracted a lot of attention both academically and from industrial companies. Are today’s admittedly suboptimal QCs -or at least the ones in the near future- good enough to help us sample the rare events in molecular systems more efficiently? To answer this question in this talk, I will introduce our newly devised hybrid path-sampling framework that combines a data-driven-based MD with QC (in the form of a quantum annealer). In contrast to the widely used Transition Path Sampling (TPS) approaches, the utilization of a Renormalization Group-based method (borrowed from nuclear physics) and QC enables us to sample transition pathways while reducing to a minimum the correlation between the paths. This allows the algorithm to search significantly different regions of the system’s free energy landscape while maintaining a high acceptance rate in the Metropolis criteria. After the introduction, I will explore and demonstrate the robustness of our method by presenting three distinct cases of its application, from a prototypically simple reaction up to a considerably more complex case of protein folding.

Indico (with zoom link) - slides -  video recording