Title: 1+1>2: Electronic Structure and Spin Control by Proximitization of Layered Materials

Speaker: Oliver L.A. Monti, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Applied Mathematics Program, The University of Arizona

Abstract: Layered materials provide an exceptional platform for manipulating electronic states and spin properties. Particularly in the realm of 2D materials, examples range from the emergence of strongly correlated phases to exciton condensates and the appearance of multiferroicity. Key to these advances in creating a sandbox for materials “synthesis” is the concept of proximitization of two materials, often involving few-layer structures of 2D materials. As versatile as this approach has proved to be, the structural design space of layered materials remains limited, e.g. excluding certain types of lattice geometries beyond hexagonal lattices completely and thus preventing the study of some of the most exciting classes of problems.

This need for increased structural richness may be bridgeable by proximitizing layered materials, or quantum materials more broadly, with molecules. The chemical space of molecules is enormous, with subtle changes routinely accessible by synthetic chemists. I will show in this talk that this paradigm can indeed create unexpected and rich physics that allows tuning both spin and electronic structure, including potentially correlations. We combine spin-, time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with advanced structural methods to reveal new ways of sculpting the interface, opening pathways to ultrafast spintronic modalities and to new materials designs.