Consortium for advanced materials based on spin chirality

手性无处不在，它支撑着我们对粒子物理学和分子生物学等不同研究领域的理解。以可区分的左手和右手形式存在是物体的对称属性。手性也支配着许多先进材料的有用的电子和光学性质。我们现在将利用我们对这种电子和结构手性的理解来创造各种新技术。我们将建立一个以开发先进材料中的电子手性为中心的国际联盟，特别关注它们的电磁响应。我们将结合国际上在手性电子介质的合成、表征和理论方面的专业知识，并雄心勃勃地在各种技术上取得进展，从下一代信息和通信技术到改进的生物传感器。我们的联盟由来自格拉斯哥大学的4名核心科学家和其他合作者以及来自东京，大阪，九州和广岛的大学和研究所的18名核心科学家组成。它将通过与俄罗斯乌拉尔联邦大学和澳大利亚莫纳什大学的合作得到加强。它将通过一些会议、研究访问、研究人员交流和涉及更广泛社区的大型会议来促进。我们的目标是三个广泛的主题，在这些主题中，我们的个人专业知识将受到财团带来的新视角的刺激。1)原子尺度电子手性与新型磁性晶体。电子手性的一个简单表现就是磁性的出现。手性晶体中最基本的电子相关可以产生各种各样的磁有序，其中只有一小部分（skyrmions）被认为是潜在有用的。我们的见解是研究螺旋介质的很大程度上被忽视的区域，螺旋介质具有磁矩的螺旋排列，比skyrmions更坚固，更容易实现。我们将把我们在手性材料（广岛）方面的专业知识与国际领先的磁性材料电子显微镜（格拉斯哥）和理论（乌拉尔）结合起来，推动对人工设计和自然产生的螺旋磁性材料的探索，这些材料具有利用磁电阻和磁光响应的强大应用潜力。2)微米级电子手性和手性等离子体超材料。等离子体激元-集体电子激发-可以与电磁辐射强烈相互作用，特别是在图案金属结构中。我们将探索手性图案化介质，我们已经证明了它有许多应用。例如，格拉斯哥率先使用这种手性等离子体作为手性生物分子的超灵敏传感器，而东京在这种结构的光学特性方面拥有专业知识。第二个应用是片上等离子体的发展，以形成适合太赫兹应用的各种器件的基础（格拉斯哥），我们现在将通过将手性图案磁性材料作为可重构组件来增强。这些复合结构为太赫兹移相器或功能化纳米颗粒传感器的应用提供了新的可能性。3)手性敏感电子探针。手性特异性技术的发展使手性材料的研究变得更加容易。格拉斯哥大学在使用手性光子探针研究光束的光学轨道角动量方面有着长期的专业知识，而莫纳什大学在形成适用于手性特定电子显微镜的类似电子探针方面有着专业知识。使用涡旋光束成像等离子体结构和手性自旋纹理的原型测量已经在进行中（广岛，格拉斯哥），并将首次用于研究上述两个主题中产生的材料。

Chirality is ubiquitous and underpins our understanding of research fields as diverse as particle physics and molecular biology. It is the symmetry property of an object to exist as distinguishable left- and right-handed forms. Chirality also governs useful electronic and optical properties of many advanced materials. We will now use our understanding of this electronic and structural chirality to create a variety of new technologies. We will establish an international consortium centred on the exploitation of electronic chirality in advanced materials, with a particular interest in their electromagnetic response. We will combine international expertise spanning the synthesis, characterisation and theory of chiral electronic media with an ambition to make advances in a variety of technologies, ranging from next generation information and communication technologies to improved bio-sensors. Our consortium comprises 4 core scientists and additional collaborators from across the University of Glasgow and 18 core scientists from Universities and Institutes in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyushu and Hiroshima. It will be augmented by collaboration with Ural Federal University, Russia and Monash University, Australia. It will be facilitated by a number of meetings, research visits, researcher exchanges and larger conferences involving the broader community.We target three broad themes, in which our individual expertise will be stimulated by fresh perspectives brought by the consortium.1) Atomic-scale electronic chirality and novel magnetic crystals.A simple manifestation of electronic chirality is the emergence of magnetism. The most fundamental electronic correlations in chiral crystals can give rise to a variety of magnetic orderings, of which only a small subset (skyrmions) have been recognised as potentially useful. Our insight is to study the largely overlooked area of helicoidal media, which have spiral arrangements of magnetic moments and are more robust and easier to realise than skyrmions. We will combine our expertise in chiral materials (Hiroshima) with internationally-leading electron microscopy of magnetic materials (Glasgow) and theory (Urals) to propel an exploration of artificially designed and naturally occurring helicoidal magnetic materials that have strong potential for applications utilising magnetoresistance and magneto-optical response. 2) Micron-scale electronic chirality and chiral plasmonic metamaterials. Plasmons - collective electronic excitations - can interact strongly with electromagnetic radiation, particularly in patterned metallic structures. We will explore chirally patterned media that we have already demonstrated to have a number of applications. For example, Glasgow has pioneered the use of such chiral plasmons as ultra-sensitive sensors for chiral biomolecules whilst Tokyo has expertise in the optical characterisation of such structures. A second application is the development of on-chip plasmonics to form the basis of a wide class of devices suitable for THz applications (Glasgow), which we will now augment by incorporating chiral patterned magnetic materials as reconfigurable components. These composite structures offer new possibilities for application as THz phase shifters or sensors for functionalised nanoparticles. 3) Chirally-sensitive electron probes. The study of chiral materials is eased by the development of chiral-specific techniques. Glasgow has long-standing expertise in the use of chiral photon probes in the context of optical orbital angular momentum for light beams whilst Monash has expertise in forming analogous electronic probes that would be suitable for chirally-specific electron microscopy. Prototypical measurements in the use of such vortex beams for imaging plasmonic structures and chiral spin textures are already underway (Hiroshima, Glasgow) and will be employed for the first time in the study of materials generated in both of the above themes.