Tailoring Quantum Matter on the Flatland

Introduction

Designer materials are a key research subject in condensed matter physics, offering great opportunities to explore emerging new physics and provide pathways to many-body quantum phenomena that are exceedingly difficult to find intrinsically in isolated materials.

Challenges in Hybrid Materials

The key challenge is to retain the individual quantum ground states in the different components in hybrid materials, while simultaneously tuning the strength of the interactions between them. This requires careful nanofabrication, and the complexity of such systems makes further progress difficult.

Proposal Overview

In this proposal, I will use vertical heterostructures of van der Waals (vdW) materials as a flexible platform to engineer elusive quantum states of matter. The general goal of this proposal is the experimental realization of two-dimensional (2D) topological superconductors in vdW heterostructures, and to study the resulting emergent phases of matter.

Manipulation of Quantum States

Subsequently, I will use external stimuli to manipulate these quantum states, including:

1. Magnetic field
2. Temperature
3. Chemistry
4. External gate

I will couple moiré physics with topological superconductivity and show how the moiré is an external factor that allows additional control over the topologically superconducting phase.

Integration with Ferroelectric Materials

Finally, I will combine 2D topological superconductors with ferroelectric materials to fabricate nanoscale reprogrammable topological circuits. This will allow controlling topological superconductivity via locally applied electric fields in the heterostructure.

Methodology

I will use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to fabricate high-quality 2D vdW heterostructures and probe the properties of the resulting emergent phases using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (LT-STM) and spectroscopy (STS).

Advantages of MBE-STM

The combination of MBE-STM in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) allows me to fabricate extremely clean, atomically well-defined, chemically tunable heterostructures and gives me unprecedented access to their atomic-scale structure and electronic properties.