Synthetic Quantum Materials in Superconducting Circuits – Making Matter from Microwave Photons

Superconducting circuits have recently emerged as a leading platform for quantum computing, satisfying the challenges of controllability, long coherence, and strong interactions. Here we apply the same toolbox to the exploration of strongly correlated quantum materials made of microwave photons. I will talk about recent work where we experimentally demonstrated a new approach for preparing photonic quantum states in superconducting circuits using engineered dissipation. In a separate experiment, we realized a topological lattice for photons using arrays of coupled microwave cavities and observe the dynamics of topologically-protected edge states. These experiments demonstrate superconducting circuits as a powerful platform to investigate the emerging phases and dynamics of quantum materials. I will briefly introduce directions we are currently pursuing in my lab at Purdue.