Quantum Devices with Saulius Vaitiekenas⁠

What happens at one of the coldest places in the universe?

For this session, I visited the Centre for Quantum Devices at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI).

I visited my last guest, Michele Burrello, and today’s guest, Saulius Vaitiekenas at their lab. We took a tour of the lab and of the different quantum devices they develop and test. 

In this episode, I discuss with Saulius the tangible ways in which quantum devices are created, particularly the technology and processes used to develop these platforms and we unpack some of the concepts we previously discussed with Michele.

Saulius Vaitiekenas' research combines different materials, such as semiconductors and superconductors, and constructing devices to create rare or non-natural physical settings. He is an experimental condensed matter physicist and studies emergent quantum phases in hybrid material platforms. A Lithuanian physicist, Saulius studied at the Free University of Berlin and got his PhD in Physics from the University of Copenhagen in 2020.

3:38 Meet Saulius Vaitiekenas

5:43 A day in the lab at the Centre for quantum devices 

7:30 Working in the clean room 

8:30 Using lithography techniques 

10:16 Touring the lab

14:40 Energy scales and observing materials 

17:15 Dilution refrigerators, a technological marvel

20:10 Semiconductors and superconductors materials

24:20 Saulius's collaborations 

24:56 Saulius shares views on how the field could progress: fundamental research, applications