A programmable photonic chip that can be reconfigured to perform different tasks could make quantum technologies more flexible – an approach Peter McMahon, associate professor of applied and engineering physics at Cornell, will explore as a 2026 Experimental Physics Investigator with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Credit: Cornell University Photography

McMahon is one of 21 mid-career scientists selected for the foundation’s 2026 cohort, announced Oct. 1. The five-year, $1.35 million award gives him the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward experiments aimed at developing new ways to create, control and manipulate quantum light.

McMahon’s research focuses on programmable photonic devices that can be reconfigured after fabrication. Rather than designing a chip for a single task, his approach aims to create a device that can be programmed to perform different operations using quantum light.

His project will adapt photonic platforms originally developed for classical light to work with quantum states of light. McMahon and his team will explore ways to create and guide single photons and entangled photon pairs, convert quantum light between wavelengths, and generate squeezed light with controllable structure.

The result could provide a new tool for quantum photonics, in which a single chip that can be programmed for different tasks rather than built for only one. Such flexibility could make it easier to connect quantum systems that operate at different wavelengths and could ultimately support technologies for quantum communication, sensing and computing.

“I am very grateful for the Moore Foundation’s support of our research,” said McMahon, who joined the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering in 2019. “The stable source of funding for five years will allow us to pursue riskier directions that have a long-term research horizon.”

Support from the Moore Foundation extends beyond the research grants. To help investigators learn from one another, the initiative brings cohorts together each year in an informal setting built around trading ideas and imagining new experiments, rather than the usual conference format. The initiative also asks investigators to lead well-mentored, high-performing research groups that develop the next generation of scientific talent and supports professional development for investigators toward that goal.

“From the start, our aim has been to accelerate progress at the frontier of experimental physics by giving brilliant mid-career scientists the kind of flexible, sustained support that federal grants rarely can,” said Theodore Hodapp, program director for the initiative. “That freedom lets them take on risky, high-reward experiments and follow ideas when research results lead them down new pathways.”