RQMP Research Seminar

Live from New York: Programmable Quantum Materials

Dmitri Basov

Department of Physics
Columbia University

Experimentally realizing quantum phases of matter and controlling their properties is a central goal of the physical sciences. Novel quantum phases with controllable properties are essential for new electronic, photonic, and energy management technologies. Quantum materials offer particularly appealing opportunities for the implementation of on-demand quantum phases. This class of materials host interacting many-body electronic systems featuring an intricate interplay of topology, reduced dimensionality, and strong correlations that leads to the emergence of "quantum matter'' exhibiting macroscopically observable quantum effects over a vast range of length and energy scales. Central to the nano-optical exploration of quantum materials is the notion of polaritons: hybrid light-matter modes that are omnipresent in polarizable media. Infrared nano-optics allows one to directly image polaritonic waves yielding rich insights into the electronic phenomena of the host material supporting polaritons. We utilized this novel general approach to investigate the physics of on-demand hyperbolic exciton-polaritons in a prototypical atomically layered van der Waals semiconductor WSe2 in which polaritons are prompted by femto-second photo-excitation.

Selected publications:
[1] D.N. Basov, R.D. Averitt and D. Hsieh, “Towards properties on demand in quantum materials” Nature Materials 16, 1077 (2017).
[2] D. N. Basov, Ana Asenjo-Garcia, P. J. Schuck, X. Zhu and Angel Rubio, “Polariton panorama” Nanophotonics 10(1) 549 (2021) https://infrared.cni.columbia.edu/research/polariton-panorama-2-2/.
[3] A. J. Sternbach, S. Chae, S. Latini, A. A. Rikhter, Y. Shao, B. Li, D. Rhodes, B. Kim, P. J. Schuck, X. Xu, X.-Y. Zhu, R. D. Averitt, J. Hone, M. M. Fogler, A. Rubio, and D. N. Basov, “Programmable hyperbolic polaritons in van der Waals semiconductors” Science (January 28, 2021).