Quantum Electronic States in Delafossite Oxides

As part of a generously-funded ERC research project, we are seeking an ambitious and motivated PhD student to join a major research initiative aimed at investigating Quantum Electronic States in Delafossite Oxides (QUESTDO).

One of the most active challenges of modern solid state physics and chemistry is harnessing the unique and varied physical properties of transition-metal oxides. While little-studied to date, initial work suggests that the delafossite oxide metals are a particularly rich member of this materials class. They exhibit a wide array of fascinating properties, from ultra-high conductivity [1,2] to unconventional magnetism [3], and we have recently found that they can host strongly spin-orbit coupled or ferromagnetic states at their surfaces and interfaces [4,5]. You will seek to understand, and control, the delicate interplay of frustrated triangular and honeycomb lattice geometries, interacting electrons, and effects of strong spin-orbit interactions in stabilising these, and will build on the group’s existing activity in the study of delafossites and spin-orbit coupled systems [e.g. 4-8]. The precise work to be undertaken will depend on the interests of the student, and could include utilizing laboratory-, laser-, and synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission to probe the intriguing bulk and surface electronic structures and many-body interactions in delafossites and developing the epitaxial growth of delafossites by reactive-oxide molecular-beam epitaxy.