Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero

Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Condensed Matter
Quantum Electronic Transport in Novel Low-Dimensional Systems such as Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes
Crystallographic Graphene Nanoribbons
Superconducting Graphene Nanoelectronic Devices
Suspended Graphene Devices
Graphene-Carbon Nanotube Junctions
Gated Bilayer Graphene

Research Summary

Professor Jarillo's research interests lie in the area of experimental condensed matter physics, in particular quantum electronic transport in novel low dimensional nanomaterials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. Graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the 2- and 1-dimensional forms of graphite, respectively, and constitute ideal 2D and 1D systems to study the behavior of electrons in low dimensions. Since their discovery (~1993 for single wall CNTs and ~2004 for graphene) these materials have fascinated physicists, chemists, engineers and even biologists because of their amazing properties. Jarillo's group focuses on understanding the novel electronic properties of these materials stemming from their unique electronic structure. On the fundamental side, electrons in graphene, for example, behave in many ways similar to "charged neutrinos". On a more "technological" side, the spin dynamics of confined electrons in CNTs and graphene is expected to be very rich, and enables many basic experiments in the area of spintronics and quantum information processing.

Recent Work

  • Video

    2024 MIT R&D Conference: Track 6 - Quantum 2.0 - Quantum Materials for Quantum 2.0

    November 19, 2024Conference Video Duration: 25:39
    Quantum Materials for Quantum 2.0
    Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
    Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, MIT Department of Physics
    The XXth century saw a revolution in science and technology, Quantum 1.0, largely triggered by our basic understanding of Quantum Mechanics, the physical theory of nature. Over the coming decades, a much more advanced technological revolution, Quantum 2.0, will make use of much more advanced concepts in quantum mechanics. In order to realize these technologies, new quantum materials are needed.  These materials have often defied theoretical understanding, in some cases during decades. The discovery six years ago of correlated phases and superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene has led to the emergence of a new materials platform to investigate quantum materials, namely moiré quantum matter. These systems exhibit a plethora of quantum phases, such as correlated insulators, superconductivity, magnetism, ferroelectricity, and more. In this talk, Jarillo-Herrero will review some of the recent advances in the field, focusing on the newest generation of moiré quantum systems, where correlated physics, superconductivity, and other fascinating phases can be studied with unprecedented tunability. He will conclude with an outlook of some exciting directions in this emerging field.