Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Materials

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Electrons are seemingly simple particles with charge e and spin ½. But, when they live in materials whose composition, structure, and even dimensionality can be carefully designed, they display various complex, emergent states of matter. These states have tremendous potential to be useful as well as interesting, but they can be theoretically difficult to describe and predict. After an introduction to ways of thinking about strongly correlated quantum materials, I will describe how imaging local magnetic fields with a scanning Superconducting QUantum Interference Device allows us to non-invasively watch the electrons on mesoscopic length scales. I will give several examples of the ways in which the magnetic flux quantum (h/e or h/2e in metals and superconductors respectively) can play a special role in diagnosing the state of quantum materials ranging from normal metals to topological insulators to proposed chiral superconductors.

–

Authors

  • Sergey Savrasov

    Hartnell College, Cal State Univ- Long Beach, University of California, Davis, School of Natural Science, University of California, Merced, Seagate Technology, Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, University of California - Berkeley, University of Colorado, Boulder -- Dept of Physics, University of California, Berkeley -- Dept of Chemistry, UC Merced, California State University, Fresno, California Institute of Technology, California State University, Long Beach, La Canada Flintridge, CA, Department of Physics, Florida A\&M University, Tallahassee, FL-32307, Physical and Life Sciences, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA-94550, Cal State Univ East Bay, American River College, UC Santa Cruz, Notre Dame High School, Benedict College, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Tuskegee University, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Sonoma State University, Carnegie Observatories, University of California, Los Angeles, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Alabama, MPIfR, Bonn, Germany, Stanford University, University of California - Davis