Correlated quantum materials possess remarkable physical properties, such as high-Tc superconductivity, quantum Hall effect, novel topological orders etc. Yet, the underlining physics of these emergent quantum phenomena remain poorly understood. In recent few years, benefited by the fast development of new generation of x-ray light sources, ultra-high resolution inelastic x-ray scattering, fully coherent x-ray beam with nanometer x-ray spot, femtosecond time-resolution x-ray free electron laser (xFEL) become available to directly study the emerging low-energy excitations and their ultrafast processes. In this talk, I will present our recent works on various quantum materials and show how spin, charge and lattice excitations interact with each other and how these excitations conspire to determine the macroscopic physical properties1-7. 

References:

1.   H. Miao* et al., PNAS 114, 12430 (2017)

2.   H. Miao* et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 011008 (2018)

3.   H. Miao* et al., Phys. Rev. X 9, 031042 (2019)

4.   H. Miao* et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 035302 (2018)

5.   H. Miao* et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 020502 (2018)

6.   Lee, Chubukov, Miao and Kotliar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 187003 (2018)

7.   Zhang and Miao*, under review in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2019)

Hu Miao is a postdoctoral research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His primary research interests are based on understanding emergent quantum phenomenon of strongly correlated and topological materials using advanced x-ray techniques. He is the author of 39 peer-reviewed scientific papers (including 6 Physical Review Letters, 5 Physical Review X, 3 Nature communications and 1 PNAS), which have received more than 2,600 citations.