SPA Colloquium: Benjamin Safdi (UC Berkeley)

Title: New states born from frustration in quantum materials

Abstract: Crystalline materials provide a highly tunable design space for tailoring interactions between electrons and for designing new responses and functionalities for solid-state applications.  In particular, quantum materials, or compounds built from ions where the quantum nature of their electrons dictates the types of collective order, provide a fascinating playground for searching for new states and for testing the predictions of many-body Hamiltonians.  One of the most compelling design elements of quantum materials is the concept of frustrated interactions between many electrons that can promote the formation of exotic states.  In this talk, I will give an overview of some of these states sought in the field of quantum materials and instantiate via examples of compounds manifestations where quantum frustration creates surprising ground states.