The purpose of this meeting was to assess synergies and complementary areas of focus in the research on ‘adaptive quantum materials’ carried out by both the UK and Switzerland, as a basis for future collaboration. The focus of this workshop was on materials with tunable functional quantum properties, whose properties and functionalities can be engineered by design at the quantum level, offering opportunities for quantum science and technology unavailable in naturally existing compounds.

Examples of these include hetero structures of atomically thin layers of different compounds (e.g., 2D materials or transition metal oxides) and interfaces; various types of nanowires and nano clusters; NV centres in diamonds and similar defects in other insulators/semiconductors; atomically well-defined structures whose properties are engineered by controlled external stimuli - strong coupling to radiation in an EM cavity or photonic circuit; electronic systems controllably driven into non-equilibrium states, as well as materials for various quantum circuits.

A number of case studies have shown that these systems possess an enormous potential for development of future technology based on the control and use of quantum mechanical phenomena, in particular, in information processing and sensing, and the meeting aims to roadmap UK-Swiss co-operation both on fundamental science and the future applications of such adaptive quantum materials.