Understanding New Complexities in Correlated Oxides Using Resonant Photons

Speaker: Jiarui Li
Affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Date: Wednesday, December 4^th

Abstract: 

Strongly correlated quantum materials host emergent phenomena and novel functionalities that escape the conventional description of quantum mechanics. Due to the interplay between the charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom, rich complexities in the ground-states could arise and manifest themselves in 1. microscale inhomogeneity of electronic spatial textures, 2. complex electronic, orbital, and magnetic structures and 3. coupled orders. Developing techniques to characterize, understand and control these complexities provides immense opportunities for understanding and harnessing quantum materials. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts on understanding and controlling these complexities using a combination of scattering, spectroscopy and imaging techniques based on synchrotron X-ray. By integrating state-of-the-art characterizations with freestanding membranes and strain controls, we demonstrate control over emergent electronic phases across an extended temperature-strain phase diagram, which is not achievable in the bulk. This unique combination of synthesis, tuning and probing techniques has provided new insights and new approaches in answering unresolved questions in quantum materials and beyond.