Physics Colloquium, Faculty Position Candidate- Discovering Novel Magnetic Materials using Chemistry and Physics

Abstract: Novel materials have a central role in the advancement of nearly every aspect of our society and scientific research. In this talk, I will show how to use chemistry to design, discover and synthesize novel materials to pursue physics questions. Two examples of tuning magnetism in different crystalline environments will be presented. In the first half, I will talk about studying magnetic behavior in an aperiodic quasicrystalline lattice by synthesizing the first series of magnetic binary quasicrystals, i-R-Cd. The absence of long-range magnetic ordering in this system is explained by the disorder of rare earth atomic positions. In the second half, I will report my recent discovery and characterization of hard ferromagnetism in a new, van der Waals semiconductor, VI3. Both examples demonstrate the great necessity of combining chemistry and physics to discover new materials, which allows for a better understanding and control of magnetism in condensed matter. 
 
 
 
** Refreshments served from 2:45pm – 3:00pm in PAS 218.  Thank you. **