Optical sensing of electronic interactions in two-dimensional semiconductors using a novel cryogenic surface force apparatus

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The project will harness the state-of-the-art expertise in instrument design and engineering of Razorbill Instruments, based in Edinburgh, and the expertise in two-dimensional materials and optical spectroscopy at the Quantum Photonics Lab (QPL) at Heriot-Watt University, led by Prof. Brian Gerardot. The first part of the project will be to deliver the main design requirements: (i) Designing an optically transparent probe that can gently contact a surface; (ii) Designing a mechanism to allow in-plane motions with ~angstrom precision, and (iii) Designing an optical sensing feedback method for these mechanisms so that the motions are controlled and measured. The industrial partner, Razorbill Instruments, are experts in precision motion at cryogenic temperature and will be able to advise on optimum designs.Once the instrument design/build/test cycle is complete, the student will join the team in the QPL to take part in the ground-breaking experiments that exploit this novel instrument. A particularly exciting goal is to optically probe 2D semiconductor heterostructures known as moiré materials as they are tuned in-situ by the instrument. Moiré materials, formed by a slight difference in periodicity or twist angle between two crystals, give rise to a wealth of intriguing collective phenomena (such as superconductivity, quantum spin liquids, and exotic types of magnetism) that cannot easily be investigated in conventional materials. The student will work closely with PhD students and post-docs in the QPL to fabricate the atomically thin crystals and perform the optical spectroscopy at cryogenic temperatures.