Speaker: Prof. Karl Berggren
Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: Superconducting Nanowires: from Photodetection, to Power-Efficient Memory, to Deep Learning"
Abstract:
In this presentation, I will describe how a relatively simple electronic device---a 100-nm-width superconducting nanowire patterned in a thin film---can be used for a rich array of purposes ranging from single-photon detection to complex digital electronics. Most importantly, the devices do not rely on Josephson junctions to operate, rather they use principles closer to that of the cryotron, hearkening back to the early days of superconductivity research in this country. Recently, with the support of IARPA, we have developed a new type of superconducting memory based on this device. Extending on that basic concept, we now believe that these devices could have application to deep learning by performing large efficient matrix multiplication events.
Biography:
Prof. Berggren is Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where he heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group. He is also Director of the Nanostructures Laboratory in the Research Laboratory of Electronics and is a core faculty member in the Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL). From December of 1996 to September of 2003, Prof. Berggren served as a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, and from 2010 to 2011, was on sabbatical at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. His current research focuses on methods of nanofabrication, especially applied to superconductive circuits, single-photon detectors for quantum applications, and electron-optical systems. His thesis work focused on nanolithographic methods using neutral atoms.