CQE Student Feature

Quantum Coherent Electronics Group: Jennifer Wang

Research group name: Quantum Coherent Electronics

Research Advisor: Dr. Kevin P. O’Brien, MIT Assistant Professor of EECS; Principle Investigator of MIT RLE Quantum Coherent Electronics Group; Member of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering

Hometown, Country: Houston, TX, USA

Academic History Prior to coming to MIT: B.A. in Physics and minor in Computer Science, Wellesley College

What brought you to MIT? During undergrad, I worked primarily with quantum materials, including NV centers in diamond and topological phononic metamaterials. I had always been curious about how the quantum properties I was observing could be used in a complex system, so I interned at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to work on the Quantum Network Testbed. My mentor, Dr. Catherine Lee (’17), was incredibly supportive and introduced me to MIT’s vibrant research community.

What interests you the most about your research? I’m most fascinated by how we can actively take advantage of quantum mechanics to design extraordinarily efficient, secure, and scalable devices. My research involves Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifiers (JTWPAs), which are chip-based amplifiers widely used in superconducting quantum systems. In particular, due to a macroscopic quantum phenomenon called the Josephson effect, we can introduce nonlinear elements that enable the JTWPA to achieve high signal gain over a broad bandwidth, which is essential for qubit readout and multiplexing. At each step of the design process, our work involves combining and translating between the fields of quantum optics and classical circuitry. I enjoy the interdisciplinary nature of this work, and I plan to investigate how we can use these devices not only for quantum computing, but also for axion and particle detection at high frequencies.