Tailoring the properties of quantum materials: Carrier density, spin interaction, and topological protection.

现代科学和技术依赖于材料，而材料的有用性取决于它们的电子特性。例如，半导体是世界计算机和电信工业的基础。现代固体物理学的前沿在于理解这些材料的性质，这些材料的物理性质作为多体量子力学相互作用的直接结果，与常规金属和绝缘体的物理性质截然不同。这些“量子材料”表现出广泛的令人惊讶的电子和磁性现象，体现了挑战凝聚态物理学领域的核心科学问题，如高温超导性，巨磁阻，无数形式的磁性和铁电性，以及这些状态的新混合物。 在UBC我的量子材料实验室，感谢一群才华横溢的学生，博士后和研究人员，我们在过去的5年里成功地开发了创新的光谱工具和方法，这些工具和方法可以以前所未有的准确性揭示量子材料中的哪些电子可以自由移动，以及这种运动如何产生新颖的自旋和轨道纠缠。我们还开发了“原位”方法-在专用的材料制造室中-以控制单晶和薄膜形式的量子材料的物理特性：例如，我们在调整非常规超导体中的载流子数量方面取得了重大突破，以及新型拓扑绝缘体中的自旋分裂。 在接下来的5年里，我们的目标是联合收割机结合我们的国家最先进的光谱能力与我们的能力，以引起和调整微观现象在两个关键位置：在UBC量子材料实验室，并在量子材料光谱中心，我的小组是在加拿大光源带来在线。通过定制载流子密度、自旋相互作用和拓扑保护，我们的目标是实现新的量子材料，这些材料在科学上是有趣的，在技术上对消费电子、电信、计算和可再生能源的下一代应用至关重要。

Modern science and technology rely on materials whose usefulness depends on their electronic properties. Semiconductors, for example, are the foundation for the world's computer and telecommunications industries. The frontier of modern solid-state physics lies in understanding the properties of those materials whose physical properties, as a direct consequence of many-body quantum-mechanical interactions, differ spectacularly from those of conventional metals and insulators. These "quantum materials" manifest a wide range of astonishing electronic and magnetic phenomena that embody the central scientific questions challenging the field of condensed matter physics, such as high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, myriad forms of magnetism and ferroelectricity, and novel admixtures of these states. At UBC in my Quantum Materials Lab, thanks to a team of talented students, postdocs, and research staff, we have in the past 5 years succeeded in developing innovative spectroscopic tools and methods than can reveal - with unprecedented accuracy - which electrons in quantum materials are free to move, and how this motion can give rise to novel spin and orbital entanglements. We have also developed "in-situ" approaches - in dedicated material fabrication chambers - to control the physical properties of quantum materials in both single-crystal and thin-film forms: for instance, we have achieved major breakthroughs in tuning the number of carriers in unconventional superconductors, and also the spin-splitting in novel topological insulators. Over the next 5 years, we aim to combine our state-of-the-art spectroscopic capabilities with our ability to elicit and tune microscopic phenomena at two key locations: at the UBC Quantum Materials Lab, and at the Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Center that my group is bringing online at the Canadian Light Source. By tailoring carrier density, spin interaction, and topological protection, our goal is to realize new quantum materials that are both scientifically interesting and technologically critical for the next-generation of applications in consumer electronics, telecommunications, computing, and renewable energy.