Feenberg Lecture with Steven Louie on One- and Two-dimensional Materials
Many phenomena in nature owe their emergence from the interactions of large number of particles. In condensed matter, many-body interaction and topological effects are often dominant in the quantum properties of reduced-dimensional systems. These effects lead to manifestation of counter-intuitive concepts and phenomena that may not be so prominent or have not been seen in the bulk. In this talk, Louie presents some fascinating quantum phenomena discovered in recent studies of atomically thin one- and two-dimensional materials. A number of interesting and unexpected behaviors have been found – e.g., strongly bound excitons (electron-hole pairs) with highly unusual energy level structures and optical selection rules; tunable magnetism and plasmonic properties; novel topological phases; prominent correlated 3- and 4-particle excitations; remarkable field-driven time-dependent effects, etc. – adding to the promise of these materials for exploration of new science and valuable applications.