Engineering Strongly Correlated Quantum Phases Through Symmetry Breaking in GNRs

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Professor Felix Fischer of the University of California, Berkeley is supported by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry to develop bottom-up synthesis, purification and investigation of one-dimensional graphene nanoribbon-based quantum materials. The synthetic products are tailored for specific ferromagnetic, metallic and superconducting properties that are relevant to next-generation electronics. Graphene nanoribbons are representatives of an emerging class of bottom-up synthesized designer quantum materials whose electronic structure can be tuned with atomic precision by chemical design. The manufactured materials will be the basis of stronger, yet more compact magnets, new schemes for low-power, portable electronic devices, quantum sensors, accelerated data processing systems, and more efficient energy generation, transduction, and conversion technologies. The project promises to streamline and accelerate computer chips while simultaneously reducing their energy demand. The project will provide training for a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students in the highly interdisciplinary field of quantum materials science. An outreach plan for collaboration with a local primarily undergraduate institution and the Bay Area Scientist in Schools (BASIS) program is geared towards broadening participation from underrepresented minorities. In this project, Professor Fischer and his students will lay the foundation for the rational bottom-up design and synthesis of strongly correlated phases in the 1D limit that holds the key to unlocking exotic quantum materials. Control of quantum electronic states in strongly correlated low-dimensional materials could ring in a new era of low-power high-frequency quantum information processing that scales far beyond the predictions of Moore’s law. The experimental validation of theoretical models that describe unconventional forms of high temperature superconductivity or the realization of atomically thin switchable wires holds the promise to streamline and accelerate computer chips while simultaneously reducing their growing energy demand. Professor Fischer and his team will leverage their expertise in bottom-up synthesis, custom polymerization techniques, and advanced scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) to rationally design, manufacture, and characterize the exotic quantum phenomena emerging form electron-electron interactions in graphene nanoribbons. The synthetic products are expected to exhibit novel physical properties that extend far beyond the parent 2D graphene, such as highly tunable band gaps, photoemission, delocalized spin-states, coherent magnetic spin-chains, symmetry protected topological states, and even metallic band structures, all tailored by real space structural parameters including among others width, symmetry, edge termination, and doping. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.