Spin and Charge Transport in Two-dimensional Topological Materials

Dr. Jifa Tian
Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Wyoming

Topological materials, such as topological insulators, Weyl semimetals and topological superconductors, have attracted tremendous attention due to their promise of revolutionary devices with non-dissipative electric or spin currents for future computation. In recent years, tremendous achievements have been made in research of the intriguing new state of quantum matter especially at low dimensions. In this talk, I will present the spin and charge transport results measured on two kinds of topological materials---3D topological insulator and topological superconductor. In the first part of the talk, I will describe a few experiments on 3D topological insulator thin films that illustrate the key electronic properties of “Dirac materials”. In the second part of this talk, I will discuss our recent progress on exploring of a novel 2D topological superconductor.

Biography:
Jifa Tian is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at University of Wyoming (UW). In 2009, he received his PhD from the Institute of Physics & the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), CAS, China. Before joining the UW in 2018, he did the postdoctoral work at Purdue University and worked as a guest researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, Gaithersburg). His research field is experimental condensed matter physics, nanophysics, and nanotechnology. His current research interest focuses on studying the novel electronic properties of quantum materials (including topological insulators, topological superconductors, 2D magnets and other novel 2D materials and their heterostructures) and exploring their potential applications in quantum engineering and nanotechnology.