CAREER: QUANTUM MATERIALS IN SQUARE-NET BASED COMPOUNDS

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。非技术摘要所谓的“量子材料”是不遵循经典物理定律的材料。 例如超导体、复杂磁体或拓扑材料。 拓扑材料是一类量子物质，有望实现未来的技术，如用于数据存储或量子计算的新设备。 然而，人们对拓扑物质的材料化学还知之甚少。 通过这个职业奖，普林斯顿大学的Leslie Schoop教授旨在了解固态化学学科如何影响对拓扑物质的理解。 为了实现这一目标，该团队将专注于一类特殊的晶体化合物：那些原子以方网方式排列的化合物。 在这些材料中，电子性质可以根据正方形晶格中的化学键来理解。 了解化学键的性质，然后允许这些键的有意修改，以及这如何影响物理性质，如电子和磁性。 最终，Schoop教授的团队将创建一个发现具有方形网络的材料的量子特性的配方。 该提案还包括与社区学院的联系，为来自新泽西州社区学院的学生提供支持，让他们在Schoop实验室度过一个夏天，以了解更多关于量子材料合成的知识。 PI将访问这些社区学院，为普通观众提供针对性的讲座，为量子材料的复杂和令人兴奋的领域提供基本见解。普林斯顿大学的Leslie Schoop教授通过这个职业奖，旨在为基于一类具有共同结构基序（正方形网络）的化合物的新量子材料的开发建立预测能力。 在这类材料中，拓扑电子结构可以与正方形网络内的化学键合类型相关联。 这种离域键合被归类为超价键合，并且与电荷密度波型晶格畸变直接竞争。 这里的目的是了解这种扭曲的拓扑能带结构的效果。 拓扑材料中的电荷密度波最近引起了人们的关注，因为它们为创建多个新的相关拓扑相提供了一条途径，这些拓扑相尚未被发现。 该项目从化学角度解决了当前的挑战。 第二个目标是使用结构扭曲作为工具来创建具有复杂磁性的材料。磁性具有将电子-电子关联添加到拓扑材料的潜力。 这种相关的拓扑材料被认为会导致发现未知的物理学，这可能导致新的量子器件。 这一目标将通过合成和结构表征多种方网材料以及改变其组成来实现。 结构数据将用于推导结构畸变的化学规则。 最后，研究了合成化合物的磁性和电子性质。 更广泛的影响包括学生教育;对多样性的承诺;为社区服务;以及推进技术的潜力。 PI将为新泽西社区大学的学生提供在她的实验室工作的机会，同时通过公开讲座深入这些校园，帮助代表性不足的少数民族学生了解不同的可能的STEM职业道路。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估来支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYSo-called "Quantum-materials" are materials that do not follow the laws of classical physics. Examples are superconductors, complex magnets, or topological materials. Topological materials are a class of quantum matter that show promise to enable future technologies such as new devices for data storage or quantum computing. Not much is yet understood, however, about the materials chemistry of topological matter. With this CAREER award, Professor Leslie Schoop at Princeton University aims to understand how the discipline of solid-state chemistry can impact the understanding of topological matter. Towards this goal, the team will focus on a particular class of crystalline compounds: those in which atoms arrange in a square-net fashion. In these materials, electronic properties can be understood on the basis of the chemical bonds in the square lattice. Understanding the nature of the chemical bonds then allows the intentional modification of these bonds and how this effects physical properties, such as electronic and magnetic properties. Ultimately, Prof. Schoop’s team will create a recipe for discovering quantum properties in materials with square nets. This proposal also includes outreach to community colleges by providing support for students from New Jersey-based community colleges to spend a summer in the Schoop lab to learn more about quantum materials synthesis. The PI will visit these community colleges to give lectures targeted to a general audience to provide basic insights to the complex and exciting field of quantum materials. TECHNICAL SUMMARY With this CAREER award, Professor Leslie Schoop at Princeton University aims to establish predictive power for the development of new quantum materials based on a class of compounds with a common structural motif - a square net. In this class of materials, a topological electronic structure can be linked to the type of chemical bonding within the square net. This delocalized bonding has been classified as hypervalent and is in direct competition to a charge density wave-type lattice distortion. The aim here is to understand the effect of such distortions on the topological band structure. Charge density waves in topological materials have recently gained attention because they provide a pathway for the creation of multiple new correlated topological phases that still have yet to be discovered. This project addresses the current challenges from a chemical angle. The second aim is to use the structural distortions as a tool to create materials with complex magnetism. Magnetism has the potential to add electron-electron correlation to a topological material. Such correlated topological materials are believed to result in the discovery of yet unknown physics, which could lead to new quantum devices. The goal will be reached by synthesizing and structurally characterizing multiple square-net materials, as well as by varying their composition. The structural data will be used to derive chemical rules for structural distortions. Finally, the magnetic and electronic properties of the synthesized compounds will be investigated. The Broader Impacts consists of student education; a commitment to diversity; service to the community; and the potential for advancing technology. The PI will provide opportunities to New Jersey community college students to work in her lab while reaching out to these campuses with public lectures to help underrepresented minority students understand different possible STEM Career paths.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.