Erik Henriksen: Pursuing quantum spin liquids in atomically thin materials

Pursuing quantum spin liquids in atomically thin materials

Abstract: Quantum spin liquids may arise when magnetic systems fail to order due to geometric or interaction-driven frustration. The layered compound a-RuCl3 has an unusual bond-direction-dependent magnetism that is required to realize the Kitaev-type quantum spin liquid. a-RuCl3 crystals are readily exfoliated to single- or few-layer flakes, so that techniques from the atomically thin materials field can be used in pursuit of this intriguing quantum magnetic phase. But measuring these samples is another matter: many probes of bulk magnetic materials do not readily carry over to ~10-um-sized, nanometer-thick samples. In our first efforts we found that placing a-RuCl3 in contact with other materials yields a strong and useful charge doping effect.Presently we are developing thermal transport probes for suspended 2D membranes, and`quantum sensing' approaches using defects in hexagonal boron nitride to seek signatures of quantum spin liquid phenomena.

Bio: Erik Henriksen is Associate Professor in Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also serves as the Associate Director of Facilities for the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to Washington University, he cut his teeth in nanofabrication in the Roukes Lab at Caltech, earned his PhD at Columbia University in the lab of Horst Stormer, and was a postdoc with Jim Eisenstein back at Caltech. He has mostly worked in 2D electronic systems, first in GaN and GaAs before hitching his wagon to graphene and other atomically thin materials.