Two years to achieve the dual launch of Nature and Science. Recently, a Ph.D. from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China had a fire.

he isYang Chao, published the first Science paper as a first author at the end of 2019, and the results solved the problemThirty years of unresolved quantum metallic states。

At the beginning of the new year in 2022, he made another major breakthrough in the field of condensed matter physics, and once again published a paper in Nature as the first author.

It’s enough to have strength, the key is to look handsome.

▲ Picture source Xinhua News Agency WeChat

For a while, netizens could not help but sigh:

It could have depended on looks, but it had to depend on talent.

From the team of Academician Li Yanrong

Yang Chao is from the School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaMaterials Science and Engineering Major 2016 doctoral student, his main research direction is superconducting quantum phase transition.

His Nature paper this year is titled “Signatures of a strange metal in a bosonic system.”

Primarily, he and other researchers have discovered and confirmed boson exotic metals for the first time in high-temperature superconductors.

Popular science time (from the official WeChat of UESTC):

There are two basic particles in the universe, fermions and bosons. Fermion system materials are mainly used in the electronic industry and devices, but they have faced bottlenecks due to factors such as high energy consumption and physical size approaching the limit. Boson devices represented by high-temperature superconductors are expected to solve these problems.

What is Strange Metal? Unlike ordinary metals, its resistivity is proportional to temperature. It exists in copper-based high-temperature superconductors and is a new state of matter with high quantum entanglement between electrons.

Thirty years ago, scientists discovered fermion strange metals, but the existence of boson strange metals has long been a difficult scientific problem to overcome.

Chandra M. Varma, an internationally renowned theoretical physicist and academician of the National Academy of Sciences, commented on the findings of Yang Chao and others:

A major breakthrough in the field of condensed matter physics.

Nature reviewers call it:

Transformative results leading to the development of quantum theory.

In more detail, this result has implications for future researchLow-energy superconducting quantum computing,as well asExtremely sensitive quantum detection technologyhave high theoretical value.

Yang Chao’s Science paper published in 2019 is titled “Intermediate bosonic metallic state in the superconductor-insulator transition” (Intermediate bosonic metallic state in the superconductor-insulator transition).

This study is also the first time that the existence of quantum metal states has been completely confirmed in high-temperature superconducting nanoporous films, ending the international academic debate on the existence and formation mechanism of quantum metal states for more than 30 years. At the same time, it provides the possibility to realize microelectronic devices and next-generation new single-photon detection devices under extremely low temperature working environment.

This achievement has won many awards, such as the “Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Universities” in 2019, and the Outstanding Paper Award of the First Sichuan-Chongqing Science and Technology Academic Conference. Yang Chao was also invited to Stanford University, Brown University, University of Washington and other universities for academic exchanges and public academic reports because of this achievement.

Of course, Yang Chao is not alone. Behind him is the team of Academician Li Yanrong from the State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.Academician Li Yanrong is also a co-author of the two papers。

Academician Li graduated from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, won the second prize of National Technology Invention Award in 2003 and 2007, and published more than 290 papers included in SCI. He is also the former president of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and is currently the president of Sichuan University.

The corresponding authors of the two papers are Professor Xiong Jie. Dr. Xiong graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, majoring in material physics and chemistry. He has been engaged in research in the Superconductivity Center and Comprehensive Nanotechnology Center of Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States.

The sophomore began to contact scientific research

What kind of courage does Yang Chao have to make such achievements?

He graduated from Tanghu Middle School in Shuangliu, Sichuan Province.Yang Chao has been in contact with scientific research since his sophomore year。

At the time, he knew little about the field of materials, but he was very interested, and his mind was full of novel ideas.

Interest and curiosity have driven him all the way to the present. However, he described the track of the “marathon” of scientific research as not a flat “plastic track”, but like entering a jungle to find a path that can be traversed. Difficulties on the road, especially those that cannot be solved in the short term, require more patience and perseverance.

Just like when writing the Science paper, Yang Chao said that the research progress is more difficult than expected: “There are many times, I feel that what I am looking for is close at hand, but in fact it is far away.”

He spent a total of three years, during which time he confirmed various conjectures with experiments step by step.Pushed back and forth 5 times, and finally completed this masterpiece.

Paper address:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04239-y

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax5798

Reference link:

[1]https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cNiG7t3n1ibv9icpZI_pww

[2]https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1721895613289576473&wfr=spider&for=pc

[3]https://www.sohu.com/na/451731216_469837