Rise of Topological Quantum Materials Over Merky Topological Ocean
| Date/Time: | Monday, 02 Apr 2018 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Phys 0003 |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: Since the notion of topological insulator (TI) was envisioned about a decade ago, topology has become a new paradigm in condensed matter physics, as recognized in the 2016 Physics Nobel Prize awarded to three theoretical physicists who laid foundation for the current topological boom. Realization of topology as a generic property of materials has led to numerous predictions of unprecedented phenomena such as magnetic dipoles, axion electrodynamics, resistance-free conduction etc. However, only a very small subset of these predictions have been materialized in real materials. Here, after a brief review on topological insulators, I will show that defects have been the major culprit behind this slow progress. Once we suppress these defects using various thin film engineering tricks, a series of topological quantum phenomena, including quantized Faraday/Kerr rotations as evidence for axion electrodynamics, quantum Hall effects, and topological quantum phase transitions, start to emerge above otherwise murky topological ocean. I will try to convince the audience that we are now truly entering the age of topological quantum materials, but only with the ability to control defects.
Bio: Seongshik Oh got his BS and MS in Physics from Seoul National University in 1992 and 1994 respectively. After serving in Korean Air Force for three years as a meteorologist (Lieutenant), he came to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1997 and got his PhD in 2003 on atomically-engineered complex oxides and high Tc cuprate superconductors. Then he joined the quantum computing team (then led by John Martinis, the current leader of the Google Quantum Computing program) at NIST, Boulder, CO, worked on materials problems of superconducting qubits, and developed the first epitaxial qubit in 2006. He then joined Rutgers University in 2007 as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 2013. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award in 2009 and since 2014, has been one of the twelve nation-wide EPiQS materials synthesis investigators selected by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Currently, he is one of the leading experts in thin film topological insulators.