Superconducting quantum devices are at the heart of modern quantum technology, where they are used both as fundamental building blocks in larger quantum devices and circuits, but also as sensors in quantum metrology. Topological superconductivity enables quantum operations that are robust against disorder and noise, which are currently limiting factors in modern quantum technology. At the same time, these superconducting devices are often realized on a mesoscopic scale, bridging the microscopic and macroscopic regimes. However, our fundamental understanding of how superconductivity behaves on the mesoscopic scale is far from complete, partly because of the technical challenges with simulating such systems with full microscopic theory.
We follow two independent approaches to tackle these challenges - quasiclassical simulations and microscopic tight-binding simulations. For the former, we have developed the open-source framework SuperConga (https://gitlab.com/superconga/superconga), based on the quasiclassical theory of superconductivity [Applied Physics Reviews 10, 011317 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0100324], which can efficiently model mesoscopic superconductivity. SuperConga is the state-of-the art, combining a highly efficient implementation that runs on GPUs, with a user-friendly and well-documented interface. SuperConga has previously been used to research a number of different topics published in high-impact journals, and in numerous student theses (https://superconga.gitlab.io/superconga-doc/about.html#research-using-superconga). SuperConga was ported to run on AMD GPUs in 2023.
For the tight-binding simulations, we use the open-source software TBTK (http://www.second-quantization.com and https://github.com/dafer45/TBTK) that was ported to run on AMD GPUs in 2023, and smaller codes developed in Python.
We already have many years of experience using GPUs in both small and medium allocations, from Glenn/Hebbe to VERA at C3SE, Berzelius and Tetralith at NSC, and Dardel at PDC. In this round, we aim to investigate the robustness of topological superconductivity against competing orders and spontaneous symmetry breaking, characterize novel unconventional and topological superconductors and superconducting phases, topological defects such as vortices and skyrmions. We also aim to identify feasible experimental signatures for these phenomena.