Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Quantum Materials

Spins in CuO

An emerging class of quantum materials with strong electronic correlations exhibit unique functionalities, such as multiferroicity, colossal magnetoresistance and memristive behaviour. Ultrafast spectroscopy (e.g. THz emission spectroscopy using an OPA as a tunable fs UV source) will permit dynamic magnetoelectric coupling to be examined, for instance in multiferroic heterostructures. Further, bulk materials with atomic scale defects, such as the N-V-centre in diamond, are attractive for quantum cryptography and spintronics applications: mid-IR pump-probe spectroscopy will permit electron dynamics in such defect complexes to be examined, providing important enabling information needed for optoelectronic applications. The high-field THz beamline will enable pioneering science in the area of non-equilibrium dynamics. The extreme THz electric field strength (>1GV/m) will be used to substantially perturb quantum materials. This will permit studies of optically-driven phase transitions on ultra-short timescales. Examining spin dynamics in topological insulators, semiconductors and half-metallic ferromagnets on ultrafast timescales using pulsed THz magnetic fields (>3T) will also provide a fertile area of research enabled by this facility.