Physicist Pairs Light and Sound to Advance Quantum Computing and Dark Matter Detection

William Renninger, an associate professor at the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics, has received a substantial grant to pursue an idea that sits at the intersection of quantum mechanics and practical engineering: what happens when you couple light with sound at the quantum level?

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation selected Renninger as one of 21 mid-career researchers for its Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative, awarding him $1.35 million over five years. The money is meant to support the kind of ambitious experimental work that doesn't fit neatly into conventional funding categories—research that could reshape how scientists think about quantum systems, but whose payoff is not yet certain.

Renninger's project hinges on a fundamental asymmetry in nature. Photons, the discrete units of light, are excellent messengers. They travel fast, cover long distances, and form the backbone of modern communication networks. Phonons—sound vibrations reduced to their quantum essence—are different creatures. They excel at storing information and acting as bridges between different quantum systems. The question Renninger is asking is whether you can harness both properties simultaneously, creating hybrid devices that do things neither light nor sound could accomplish alone.

The practical applications are substantial. Renninger plans to develop light-driven sound devices and measurement techniques that could work across multiple platforms: integrated circuits, surface acoustic wave devices, and bulk crystals. These tools could help researchers detect defects hidden inside materials, measure energy loss that would otherwise remain invisible, and generate the precise, narrow-band sound responses needed for advanced signal processing. But there is also a more speculative frontier. The same sensitivity that allows detection of minute flaws in semiconductors could, in principle, reveal the presence of ultralight dark matter—the hypothetical particles that might make up a significant portion of the universe's missing mass.

Renninger describes the work as linking three traditionally separate domains: device engineering, precision measurement, and fundamental physics. "My lab aims to broaden how researchers use light to control and measure motion in systems that are currently hard to reach," he said in a statement. The goal is to create experimental platforms where scientists can test how large mechanical systems behave when they approach the quantum limit—the point where the rules of quantum mechanics begin to dominate over classical physics.

The Moore Foundation's initiative does more than distribute money. It creates a cohort of researchers working on similarly ambitious problems, fostering collaboration and idea exchange across projects. The foundation also supports mentoring and professional development, recognizing that mid-career researchers often face pressure to produce incremental results rather than pursue genuinely novel directions.

Renninger's work sits in that genuinely novel space. The coupling of light and sound at the quantum level is not a solved problem. Success is not guaranteed. But if the approach works, it could open pathways to quantum computing architectures that are more stable or efficient than current designs, to sensing systems that can detect phenomena currently beyond reach, and to a deeper understanding of how the quantum and classical worlds intersect. The five-year timeline gives him room to explore without the constant pressure to justify every direction. What emerges from that exploration could reshape experimental physics in ways that are difficult to predict now.