Keith Schwab

Keith Schwab is a Professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) within the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on quantum systems utilizing superfluid helium-4, including the development of qubits, matter-wave interferometers, and ultra-sensitive force/acceleration detectors. He has pioneered superfluid optomechanical systems by coupling gram-scale acoustic resonators with superconducting microwave cavities, achieving acoustic quality factors exceeding 100 million (J. Low Temp. Phys. 2017). His work explores quantum physics at small length scales and gravitational wave detection from pulsars (New J. Phys. 2018).

Recent research includes investigating liquid helium transport through 2D nanoporous materials (collaboration with Prof. Ben King, University of Nevada Reno) to demonstrate the Josephson effect below superfluid transition temperatures. This platform aims to enable ultra-sensitive matter-wave interference gyroscopes and superfluid quantum information devices. Publications highlight graphene-based microwave circuits (Nano Letters 2023), microwave-to-optical transduction with erbium ions (Nature Communications 2023), and thermoelectric nanophotonics (Nature Nanotechnology 2017).