Physics Seminar: Erin Morissett, Brown University, Probing electronic order in strongly-correlated, two-dimensional quantum systems

Probing electronic order in strongly-correlated, two-dimensional quantum systems

Abstract: The expansive family of van der Waals materials, including graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), have emerged as a highly tunable platform for studying novel quantum phenomena in two dimensions. Custom heterostructures of 2D materials with strong Coulomb interactions have exhibited exotic phases such as spontaneous symmetry breaking, quantum anomalous Hall effect, and superconductivity of unknown pairing mechanisms. However, there remain significant open questions concerning the ground-state electronic order of these exotic phases. In this talk, I will introduce two novel probes for electronic order in strongly-correlated, flat-band graphene systems: angular-resolved quantum transport measurement that directly measures electronic nematicity, and resistively-detected electron spin resonance (RD-ESR) where microwaves enable direct detection of collective spin excitations. These two probes provide key experimental insights into the behavior of strongly-correlated carriers in 2D, and enable critical steps toward the future of quantum computing, high-temperature superconductors, and spintronics.