CM Seminar - Designing, Synthesizing, and Characterizing Novel Quantum Magnets:

Abstract: Just as the discovery of semiconductors revolutionized the electronic industry in the twentieth century, Quantum Materials hold the key to advanced technological properties. There is much basic scientific research still necessary to unveil the tantalizing potential of Quantum Materials. To that end, my research program is focused on advancing our ability to design, synthesize and characterize Quantum Materials, in particular Quantum Magnets. This talk will be focused on two main topics: (1) Our efforts to study the properties of a specific class of Quantum Magnets, the so-called Rare-Earth-based “Quantum Spin Liquid” (QSL) candidates. In QSLs the spins of the constituent electrons are predicted to become strongly entangled and fail to form a static ordered state as in a conventional magnet. (2) Our work to investigate the underlying properties of a recently discovered class of Quantum Magnets, the so-called “Topological Magnon Insulators (TMI),” and to develop a recipe to design and synthesis the perfect TMI candidates, while advancing experimental techniques to probe their topological nature directly and unambiguously.

Bio:  Sara Haravifard is a William M. Fairbank Assistant Professor of Physics and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. She received her B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McMaster University in Canada. She conducted her graduate research work under the supervision of Prof. Bruce Gaulin, focusing on the neutron scattering studies of singlet ground state quantum magnets. Following her graduation, she spent three years as postdoctoral associate at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory – working jointly with Prof. Thomas Rosenbaum and Dr. George Srajer. Following her postdoctoral appointment, she was promoted as an Assistant Physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory. During this time her research centered on performing transport techniques as well as Xray and neutron scattering  studies of quantum magnets under extreme sample environments of high-pressures, high-magnetic fields and ultra-low temperatures. In July 2015, Sara joined Duke university as an assistant professor of physics and the William M. Fairbank chair in experimental condensed matter. She joined the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science in 2017, and in 2018 she was awarded the honorary title of associate of Duke Initiative for Science & Society. Her current research aims to develop a deeper understanding of geometrically frustrated quantum materials, especially those exhibiting quantum phase transitions as a function of chemical doping, pressure, and magnetic field.