Pengcheng Dai
Rice University, TX·Physics
Copper wires and silicon chips set limits on how energy-efficient computers can become. One proposed alternative is spintronics: electronics that carry information using electron spin, a tiny built-in magnetism, rather than charge alone.
- Fields
Physics
Materials Science
- Topics
neutron scattering
2D magnetism
two-dimensional magnetic materials
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Grow and characterize single crystals of layered 2D magnetic materials with honeycomb and kagome lattices, the structures of interest for spintronics and exotic magnetism.
- Determine the magnetic order and spin interactions that set the ground states of these materials, using neutron scattering at national laboratory facilities.
- Measure spin dynamics with neutron scattering to understand how charge, spin and lattice vibrations interact in these 2D magnets.
More about the research
Finding suitable materials requires understanding how magnetism behaves in very thin, effectively two-dimensional (2D) layers of atoms. 2D magnetism also underlies unusual physics. Examples include quantum spin liquids, topological magnetic excitations and high-temperature superconductivity.
Why it matters
Spintronic devices could make future computers more energy-efficient than today's copper-and-silicon electronics. Knowing the magnetic interactions in honeycomb and kagome 2D magnets could help identify materials suited to such devices. It also adds basic understanding of exotic magnetic states in condensed matter.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nirmal Ghimire
University of Notre Dame, IN·Physics·Early-career
Synthesize kagome lattice magnets, materials with magnetic atoms on a corner-sharing triangle network, and use magnetotransport measurements to study how topological effects in real and momentum space interact.
Lu Li
University of Michigan, MI·Physics
Use thermoelectric and thermal Hall measurements to determine the nature of the magnetic-field-driven insulator-to-metal transition and the origin of quantum oscillations in Kondo insulators.
Chunhui Du
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Physics·Early-career
Determine how spin spreads through antiferromagnetic insulators and how their alternating Néel order switches, by imaging local magnetic fields with nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond.
The school
Rice University: 24 labs on PI Pages, $278M a year on research, 267 research doctorates a year.
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