DATE2022.04.12 #Awards & Prizes

Associate Professor Naoto Tsuji receives the 2022 Young Scientist Award from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

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Associate Professor Naoto Tsuji

Associate Professor Naoto Tsuji of Department of Physics has received the 2022 Young Scientist Award from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The subject of the award is "Theoretical study of optical resonance phenomena of Higgs modes in superconductors.

Superconductivity, known for its unique properties of zero electrical resistance and perfect antimagnetism, is a phase transition phenomenon in which quantum mechanical effects appear on a macroscopic scale. In a superconductor, the Avogadro number of electrons behaves as a single wave in phase, and the amplitude of the wave (the square of the amplitude) corresponds to the density of the electron pairs responsible for superconductivity. This amplitude oscillation is called the Higgs mode because of its deep similarity to the Higgs boson, an elementary particle. Although the Higgs mode has been considered a fundamental phenomenon that exists universally in superconductors, it has not been observed experimentally in pure superconductors for more than 50 years since its theoretical prediction. Dr. Tsuji theoretically revealed that the Higgs mode of superconductivity couples to light via nonlinear interactions. Furthermore, he theoretically showed that when light is irradiated onto a superconductor, the Higgs mode resonates with light when twice its frequency corresponds to the superconducting gap energy, and that the amplitude of the Higgs mode is divergently amplified, accompanied by a resonant enhancement of light emission from the superconductor at three times the frequency of the incident light, Dr. Tsuji has made a significant contribution to the experimental verification of the Higgs mode. Dr. Tsuji's research has contributed greatly to the development of the new field of Higgs modes in superconductors, and his research has expanded to include unconventional superconductors and applications to light-induced superconductivity.

2022 Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/mext_00989.html

We congratulate him on his award and wish him continued success in his future endeavors.

(Responsibility: Professor Ryo Shimano, Department of Physics)