Our research explores the experimental manifestation of cooperative quantum effects in strongly-interacting electron materials in novel regimes of “strong frustration” and “quantum criticality”, when electrons are “on the verge” of order. We probe the microscopic electronic states directly using neutron and synchrotron x-ray scattering on single crystals, combined with magnetometry and in-house heat capacity at mK temperatures and high magnetic field to drive quantum phase transitions. Of recent interest are quantum materials with strong correlations and spin-orbit coupling, where we have discovered unconventional forms of magnetic order and/or spin dynamics, and magnetic quasiparticles with topological properties.
Research interests
quantum materials
quantum phase transitions
Selected publications
Order-by-Disorder from Bond-Dependent Exchange and Intensity Signature of Nodal Quasiparticles in a Honeycomb Cobaltate
Nature Communications
Avoided quasiparticle decay and enhanced excitation continuum in the spin-1/2 near-Heisenberg triangular antiferromagnet Ba3CoSb2O9
Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Glide symmetry breaking and Ising criticality in the quasi-1D magnet CoNb2O6
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences 117:41 (2020) 25219-25224
Unconventional magnetic order on the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev lattice in β-Li2IrO3: Full solution via magnetic resonant x-ray diffraction
PHYSICAL REVIEW B 90:20 (2014) ARTN 205116