Quantum Matter Seminar

Superconducting circuits combined with engineered heat baths form a basis to investigate quantum thermodynamics on a chip [1]. I will present our experimental work on monitoring the dynamics of quantum circuits bolometrically, for instance on a driven system composed of a strongly coupled qubit and a cavity [2,3]. As a second topic, I introduce ideas and preliminary experiments on thermalization in isolated quantum circuits [4-6].

[1] J. P. Pekola and B. Karimi, Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 041001 (2021).

[2] Christoforus Dimas Satrya, Aleksandr S. Strelnikov, Luca Magazzù, Yu-Cheng Chang, Rishabh Upadhyay, Joonas T. Peltonen, Bayan Karimi, Jukka P. Pekola, arXiv:2510.23092 (2025).

[3] Christoforus Dimas Satrya, Yu-Cheng Chang, Aleksandr S. Strelnikov, Rishabh Upadhyay, Ilari K. Makinen, Joonas T. Peltonen, Bayan Karimi, Jukka P. Pekola, Nat. Commun. 16, 4435 (2025).
[4] J. P. Pekola and B. Karimi, Physical Review X 12, 011026 (2022).

[5] J. P. Pekola, and B. Karimi, Phys. Rev. Research 6, L042023 (2024).
[6] Bayan Karimi, Xuntao Wu, Andrew Cleland, and Jukka Pekola, Phys. Rev. Research 8, L012062 (2026).

Jukka Pekola completed his M.Sc. in technology (physics) in 1982, and in 1984 earned his doctorate under the supervision of prof. Olli V. Lounasmaa, both at Helsinki University of Technology in Finland (now Aalto University), with PhD thesis on critical flow and persistent current experiments in superfluid helium-3. He continued his work on the superfluids with a postdoc in the physics department of the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a return to Helsinki University of Technology to a position of group leader in the low-temperature laboratory. In 1992 Pekola moved to the University of Jyväskylä, co-founding together with prof. Mikko Paalanen the first laboratory on mesoscopic physics in Finland and joining the faculty in 1995. He returned to Helsinki in 2002, where he is now full professor of quantum nanophysics at Aalto. There he founded the PICO research group in the low-temperature laboratory which he heads to this day. His research programme in the physics of nanoscale devices and quantum thermodynamics has led to many breakthroughs and landmark results. He has been the director of two Centres of Excellence of the Research Council of Finland, and he leads the Finnish Quantum Institute, InstituteQ.

In 2001 Pekola was elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and to the Finnish Academy of Technical Sciences in recognition of his contributions to both fundamental and applied physics. He was awarded the Theodor Homén Prize by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2016, Simon Memorial Prize in 2020, the Prize of the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 2024, and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Prize by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2025.