Joint Physics Dept - MtSE Seminar

March 11th, Monday

X-ray Vision of Quantum Materials: From Fundamental Insights to Technological Perspectives

Dr. Ignace Jarrige

Brookhaven National Laboratory

(Experimental Condensed Matter/Materials Physics, Host: Ahn)

*SPECIAL TIME: 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm with 2:30 pm tea time

Room: ECE 202

In today’s ongoing quest to harness quantum materials for practical applications, the control of collective quantum states has emerged as a promising way to tune the functional behavior of these materials. This requires a fundamental understanding of the complex electronic states and phases hosted by quantum materials. Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) is a novel synchrotron-based probe of the electronic structure with a remarkable sensitivity to low-energy charge, spin and orbital excitations. In this talk, I will present RIXS studies of two fascinating classes of quantum materials, high-temperature superconductors and Kondo lattice systems. These studies reveal the collective electronic interactions underlying the rich phase diagrams of these materials, and show how tuning these competing interactions gives rise to quantum phase transitions. I will also discuss opportunities for x-ray spectroscopic and scattering techniques to help the development of prototype devices for quantum information processing.