Invitation to Speak at APS DMP Past-Chair Symposium – 2026 Global Physics Summit

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Nicola Poccia has been invited to speak at the Past-Chair Symposium of the APS Division of Materials Physics during the APS Global Physics Summit 2026. His talk will address recent advances in cuprate superconducting quantum materials and their potential for future quantum technologies.

Abstract: High temperature superconducting complex oxides (La₂₋ₓSrₓCuO₄, YBa₂Cu₃O₇₋ₓ, Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈₊ₓ) are materials where dominant states are not spatially homogeneous. The quantum melted electronic crystal lives in a heterogeneous landscape of “puddles”, correlated to a complex phase diagram. Some of the interest in these materials now centers less on
nitrogen-range Tc: and is progressively less motivated by achieving higher superconducting critical temperatures than before, but more on controlling this unparalleled and still-mysterious electronic state. Four decades of materials progress have clarified both limitations and enormous potential of these superconducting quantum materials, including their dominant d-wave order nature from grain-boundary junctions and interference experiments, flourishing in an early attempt to demonstrate macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy level quantization in bicrystal grain-boundary YBa₂Cu₃O₇₋ₓ junctions. However, the characteristic voltage parameter of cuprate Josephson junctions, IcRn, remained for long-time in the low values of 0.5–2 mV,
hindering their potential. Based on recent material science breakthrough with cryogenic stacking technologies, it was measured a forward jump to 20–25 mV in a comparable twist-angle junction, using Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈₊ₓ crystals and a wide d-wave angular dependence was observed. I will therefore discuss our understanding of the intrinsic fragility of these systems, new
phenomenology discovered both electronically, optically, and the electrical engineering challenges that we are addressing for potential superconducting quantum technologies.