Speaker: John W. Freeland
Program Description:
Quantum materials have been the focus of the condensed matter physics community for many years. However, owing to latest fundamental breakthroughs and realization of their immense technological potential, quantum materials have recently become a central research direction in materials science and nanotechnology, as well. Harnessing the tremendous technological promise of quantum materials, however, requires overcoming many challenges, most notably elucidating their local dynamical behavior. The latter is key to developing a framework of how to control quantum states of matter, to develop new quantum materials, and to create transformative device concepts. In this talk, I will motivate these scientific opportunities with highlights of my recent work in understanding non-equilibrium phases of complex oxides, which are a class of quantum materials with remarkable properties including magnetism, superconductivity and metal-insulator transitions. In the dynamic realm, the key challenge is to understand how to efficiently drive between these different phases and to understand and explore the non-equilibrium energy landscape. By using complex oxides in heterostructure form, we have many new opportunities to tune the energy landscape. The work I will discuss centers on driving these states away from equilibrium and probing how they evolve. I will present examples involving decoupling order parameters in Nickelates and optical creation of hidden structural phases in Titanate superlattices.
