Dec. 5, 2016
ECE/RCQM Seminar - "Fundamental Excitations in Solids"
United States
Description
Date & Time: December 5, 2016, 2:00 PM
Venue: Brockman Hall 200
Speaker: Dr. Xiaoqin (Elaine) Li, Associate Professor of Physics, University of Texas Austin
Title: Fundamental Excitations in Solids
Abstract:
Fundamental excitations (e.g. plasmons, excitons, phonons and magnons) determine both the equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of solids such as metals, semiconductors, and magnetic materials. In this talk, I will give a few examples of our recent work on investigating how such fundamental excitations and particularly coupling between different types of excitations can be probed and controlled. In one example, we develop a temperature sensing method capable of characterizing phonons and magnons temperatures separately. Using such a temperature sensor, we demonstrate that magnons and phonons in a magnetic insulator can be driven out of local equilibrium. This experiment provides quantitative information on phonon-magnon coupling strength, which is essential to a host of newly discovered phenomena in the emerging field of spin caloritronics. In another example, we observe that the scattering spectrum of a plasmonic nanoparticle is modified by a single semiconductor quantum dot even though their scattering cross sections differ by four orders of magnitude. The coupling between the classical plamonic resonance and the exciton resonance (a true quantum two-level system) is manifested as a Fano resonance mediated by single photon absorption and scattering.
Following a PhD degree from the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral position at JILA Colorado, Prof. Xiaoqin Elaine Li joined the Physics Department at University of Texas-Austin in 2007. Her recent research interests include exciton and valley physics in atomically thin semiconductors, plasmonic materials and nanoparticles, and magnons in magnetic multilayer heterostructures. Prof. Li has received a number of awards and recognition including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and APS fellow.
Date and Time
Mon, Dec. 5, 2016
2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
(GMT-0500) US/Central
Location
United States