LEAPS-MPS Quantum vortex states and non-collinear magnetic interactions in light-driven quantum materials

该奖项支持理论研究，其总体目标是理解，预测和控制光驱动量子材料中物质的新机制。我们对光与物质相互作用的理解在太阳能电池、光电晶体管和发光二极管等技术应用中起到了重要作用。然而，最近在探测器访问和操纵量子态的时间和长度尺度上取得的进展在十年前是无法实现的，现在已经能够探索物质的新量子相，导致许多问题和挑战。关于材料的光驱动工程的问题，例如“我们如何快速和彻底地改变材料的性质使用光？或者“光能在物质中诱导出能彻底改变量子计算的状态吗？”“需要协调一致的理论努力来理解光子修饰的电子的动力学和光驱动物质的相位。该项目旨在建立周期性驱动系统中物理现象的理论基础，其中光照射提供对材料性质的精确控制，并可以诱导与技术相关的新型非平衡态。该奖项还将通过直接参与PI的研究来支持本科生的培训，帮助创建教育材料和资源，以培训高中教师，并让高中生接触材料物理学和光物质相互作用的概念。此外，该项目还将帮助建立与国内外研究人员的合作，并增加来自历史上物理学服务不足社区的学生的保留率和入学率。技术概述该奖项支持理论研究，以开发技术，方法和模型系统，用于理解物理驱动系统，并预测和控制现有和未来实验设置中的新物质状态。干扰光物质、磁和自旋轨道相互作用的系统将是研究的主要焦点，将在两个主要方向进行。在第一个推力中，PI将研究光驱动对自旋磁化率的影响以及由具有自旋轨道耦合（SOC）的辐照材料介导的间接磁交换相互作用。PI将计算光驱动的二维SOC材料中的磁性吸附原子与包围三维Rashba耦合半导体的辐照磁性异质结构之间的感应磁交换相互作用。该理论将量化辐照SOC系统中光子修饰费米子介导的磁交换耦合。第二个重点是在Dirac类材料受到光涡旋光束的光-物质相互作用。PI将开发一种理论来描述这些依赖于时间和空间的系统，探索由光的轨道角动量引起的新现象，并分析涡旋和伴随的涡旋状态的潜在光诱导，以建立在实验中观察这些预测的方法。该奖项还将支持高中教师和本科生使用的教育材料和资源的创建，通过PI的研究，让高中生接触到凝聚态物理和光物质相互作用的概念。该项目将有助于提高物理学历史上服务不足的社区的学生的保留率和入学率，并将有助于与国家和国际研究人员建立合作关系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

NONTECHNICAL SUMMARYThis award supports theoretical research with a general aim to understand, predict, and control novel regimes of matter in light-driven quantum materials. Our understanding of light-matter interaction has been instrumental in technological applications such as solar cells, phototransistors, and light-emitting diodes. However, recent advances in probes accessing and manipulating quantum states in time and length scales that were unattainable just a decade ago have now enabled the exploration of new quantum phases of matter, leading to many questions and challenges. Questions on light-driven engineering of materials, such as "How fast and drastically can we change the properties of materials using light?" or "Can light induce states in matter that can revolutionize quantum computation?" demand a concerted theoretical effort to understand the dynamics of photon-dressed electrons and the phases of light-driven matter. This project aims to establish the theoretical foundations of physical phenomena in periodically driven systems where light irradiation offers precise control of material properties and can induce novel non-equilibrium states of technological relevance.This award will also support the training of undergraduate students through direct involvement in the PI’s research, aid the creation of educational materials and resources that will train high-school teachers, and expose high-school students to the concepts of materials physics and light-matter interactions. This project will, in addition, help the establishment of collaborations with national and international researchers and increase the retention and enrollment of students from historically underserved communities in physics.TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis award supports theoretical research to develop techniques, methodologies, and model systems for understanding periodically-driven systems and predicting and controlling novel regimes of matter in existing and future experimental setups. Systems that intertwine light-matter, magnetic, and spin-orbit interactions will be the primary focus of the research that will be carried out in two major thrusts. In the first thrust, the PI will investigate light-driven effects on spin-susceptibility and the indirect magnetic exchange interaction mediated by irradiated materials with spin-orbit-coupling (SOC). The PI will calculate the induced magnetic exchange interaction between magnetic adatoms in light-driven two-dimensional SOC materials and irradiated magnetic heterostructures enclosing three-dimensional Rashba coupled semiconductors. The theory developed will quantify the magnetic exchange coupling mediated by photon-dressed fermions in irradiated SOC systems. The second thrust is focused on light-matter interactions in Dirac-like materials subjected to light-vortex beams. The PI will develop a theory to describe these time and space-dependent systems, explore new phenomena arising from light’s orbital angular momentum, and analyze the potential photoinduction of vortices and concomitant vortex states to establish ways to observe these predictions in experiments.This award will also support the creation of educational materials and resources to be used by high-school teachers and undergraduates, and expose high-school students to the concepts of condensed matter physics and light-matter interactions through the PI’s research. This project will help increase the retention and enrollment of students from historically underserved communities in physics and will aid the establishment of collaborations with national and international researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.