Lee Hsun Lecture Series

Topic: Grand design of novel materials and physical properties for emerging materials science

Speaker: Prof. Xiaolin Wang
         Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Future Low Energy Electronic Technology,
         University of Wollongong, Australia
         Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials,
         Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, Australia

Time: 10:00-11:30, (Wed.) Apr.11^th, 2018

Venue: Room 468，Lee Hsun Building, IMR CAS

Abstract:

Discovery of new classes of materials with new functionalities or significantly improved performance has always been the driving force for the advance of modern science and technology, and the improvement of our daily lives. Searching for new class of materials with exotic properties has always been challenging because of the complexity of both the theoretical and the experimental approaches developed so far.  This talk will present a number of new strategies we have developed for the design of new materials and properties. It is expected to show how complicated science and materials design could be made simple and enjoyable. We will discuss how new electronic materials can be designed by shaping electronic band structures. A few examples such as Dirac massless Fermions in graphene and surface or edge states of topological insulators, Weyl metals etc will be discussed. Emphasize on a new class of materials, spin gapless semiconductors with exotic band structures, spin, charge and momentum relations as well as their realization in practical compounds will be presented. It will be shown that the spin gapless semiconductors are new and ideal platform for spintronics, massless spintronics, quantum anomalous Hall effect, and new electronic and spin states. Furthermore, the ultimate questions in material and property’s design are raised: 1) How many new (electronic) materials or new (electronic) properties are still there? 2) What are they? 3) Where are they or how to create them? To answer these questions, a new concept, the codes of matter/materials based on the three ubiquitous and paramount attributes of all existing matter/materials, charge, spin, freedom of motion will be introduced. We will discuss the principles of the codes and their applications in material and property design. Many new types of electronic materials with exotic band structures/properties and their possible experimental realizations will be discussed.

In this talk, I will also present some of our latest results on thermoelectric materials with ultra-high figure of merit, topological Fermi surface transition in a Rashba system, colossal enhancement of critical current density using in-situ hydrostatic pressure, electron beam induced ferroelectric domain flipping, novel 2D electronic materials, and novel voltage induced phenomenon in liquid metals etc.

This work was financially supported by Australian Research Council through ARC Center and discovery projects and ARC Professorial Future Fellowship project.