From exotic superconductors to topological polarization vortices, quantum materials exhibit stunning and extremely useful physical properties. Understanding the physics of quantum materials is a frontier research challenge of modern science. The control of many-body states in engineered devices could ultimately revolutionise modern technologies. Our group combines molecular-scale materials fabrication, single-crystal synthesis and device engineering with state-of-the-art transport, thermodynamic and spectroscopic measurements. We understand and predict the properties of materials using quantum-field models and first-principles calculations. We explore forms of ‘ultra-quantum-matter’ in which the fascinating principles of superposition, entanglement and measurement-induced collapse, extend beyond the atom scale to macroscopic scales.
Research
Our projects are catagorized into three main research themes of the Cavendish Laboratory with sub-topics of interest listed below.
Emergent Quantum Phenomena
- Quantum Phase Transitions
- Topological materials
- Strongly correlated electrons
- Quantum field theory
- Heavy fermions
- Superconductivity
- Metallic magnetism
- Ferroelectrics
- Antiferroelectrics
- Ferroelastics
- Multiferroics
- Weyl and Dirac semimetals
- Ferro- and anti-ferroelectric topological insulators
Quantum Devices and Technology
- Solid-state refrigerants for quantum technologies
- Sensing devices e.g. cryogenic capacitive-based thermometry and quantum stress sensors
- Voltage-gated strongly correlated electron transistors and electric-field control of microelectronic superconducting and topological-insulator devices
- Quantum computing platforms
- Dielectric-based non-volatile random access memories
Energy Materials
- Superdielectrics
- Thermoelectrics
- Electrocalorics
- Magnetocalorics
- Elastocalorics