https://ubc.zoom.us/j/68470173961?pwd=RTZEak9Pd01WajVOZHN5SW5YZHcyQT09
Meeting ID: 684 7017 3961

Passcode: 113399

Speaker: Marlou Slot; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States

Title: Atom by Atom and Layer by Layer: Designing and Realizing Electronic Quantum Matter

Abstract: Quantum simulators are a versatile tool to study the behavior of quantum matter in a controlled way. Elusive or complex quantum systems are simulated using accessible quantum systems that can be manipulated at will. While platforms based on, among others, ultracold atoms and photons are well-established, electronic platforms are currently being developed.
The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is uniquely suited to create and manipulate electronic 2D potential landscapes at will in-situ. By atomic-scale patterning of the 2D electron gas at specific metal surfaces, the electrons can be molded into electronic lattices with nearly any geometry. In this talk, I will present CO molecules adsorbed on a Cu(111) surface as a highly-tunable electronic quantum simulator, in which the lattice geometry, the orbital degree of freedom, the dimension and the topology can be tailored [1-4]. Moving beyond the in-situ approach, ex-situ nanofabricated twisted van der Waals devices pave the way to study electron-electron interactions in tailor-made 2D potential landscapes [5]. I will demonstrate high-resolution gate-tunable Landau level spectroscopy and signatures of correlated states in twisted double bilayer graphene, expanding the quantum simulation toolkit from atom by atom to layer by layer.

[1] M. R. Slot et al., Nat. Phys. 13, 672 (2017)
[2] S. N. Kempkes and M. R. Slot et al., Design and characterization of electrons in a fractal geometry, Nat. Phys. 15, 127 (2019)
[3] M. R. Slot and S. N. Kempkes et al., p-Band Engineering in Artificial Electronic Lattices, PRX 9, 011009 (2019)
[4] S. N. Kempkes and M. R. Slot et al., Robust zero-energy modes in an electronic higher-order topological insulator, Nat. Mater. 18, 1292 (2019)
[5] D.M. Kennes et al., Moiré heterostructures as a condensed-matter quantum simulator, Nat. Phys. 17, 155 (2021)

Bio: Marlou Slot is a Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow and NIST-Georgetown PREP Fellow working with Dr. Joseph Stroscio at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She obtained her PhD from Utrecht University working with Prof. Daniel Vanmaekelbergh and Prof. Ingmar Swart. Prior to that, she obtained her undergraduate degree from RWTH Aachen University and EPFL Lausanne and she was a research assistant at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Her research interests focus on designer quantum matter realized and/or measured using scanning probe microscopy, including van der Waals heterostructures and in-situ patterned surfaces.