Pekola, Jukka: Finnish CoE in Low Temperature Quantum Phenomena and Devices

The CoE’s mission is to investigate quantum phenomena at low temperatures and to identify possible applications. Some of the research faculty work at temperatures very close to absolute zero to study such low temperature phenomena as superfluids.

At low temperatures, physical systems eventually condense into their quantum mechanical ground state and may exhibit extraordinary properties not known in everyday contexts. Known examples include the superconducting state of metals where the electric current flows lossless, and the superfluid state of helium, in which the flow is lossless. Both cases are examples of macroscopic quantum-mechanical phenomena that occur in low temperatures.

Another increasingly important research focus in this field includes phenomena in nanostructures. Work at the CoE concentrates on the area of nanoelectronics where quantum phenomena are significant.

More specifically, research at the CoE includes charge and heat transfer and related fluctuations, and mechanical motion governed by quantum mechanics. The materials studied by the CoE include helium superfluids, superconductors, graphene and carbon nanotubes as well as ordinary metals.

Professor Jukka Pekola, Aalto University, tel. +358 9 470 24913, +358 50 344 2697, pekola(at)boojum.hut.fi

Sites of research: Aalto University, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland