Huge congratulations to Miss Tepie Meng and her team at Harvard University for their groundbreaking publication in quantum physics! An exciting achievement for the field.

Quantum control of Hubbard excitons

Scientists are trying to learn how to control the behavior of many interacting particles inside quantum materials, which could allow them to tune unusual properties like magnetism or conductivity. In this work, Tepie Meng, a Khmer PhD candidate at Harvard University, and her team, use a technique called Floquet engineering, where a carefully timed laser field periodically “shakes” the quantum system. They apply this method to a special bound state of electrons and holes (an exciton) in a strongly interacting material called Sr₂CuO₃. The laser field changes the exciton’s quantum state, rotating it between states that either interact strongly with light (“bright”) or barely interact (“dark”). By measuring the resulting light signals, the team shows they can precisely control these exciton states on extremely fast timescales. This demonstrates a new way to manipulate complex quantum states, which could eventually help develop quantum technologies or sensitive quantum sensors.

Baykusheva, D.R., Carmichael, D., Weber, C.S. et al. Quantum control of Hubbard excitons. Nat. Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02517-6