Catalin Martin
Ramapo College of New Jersey, NJ·Physics
Some newly discovered materials carry electricity through charges that behave as if they have no mass. These "Dirac fermions" move very easily, so they can carry current with little power loss.
- Fields
Physics
Materials Science
- Topics
condensed matter physics
Weyl semimetals
topological materials
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Probe for Weyl cones, the cone-shaped bands of massless electrons, in REAlX semimetals such as PrAlGe1-xSix, and map their extent, shape and position using low-temperature infrared spectroscopy from terahertz to ultraviolet.
- Measure how quantized Landau levels shift with applied magnetic field using infrared magneto-spectroscopy, combined with density functional calculations, to characterize the massless Weyl fermions.
- Determine how magnetic ordering affects Weyl cones, to clarify how rare-earth ions couple magnetically and how Berry curvature produces the anomalous Hall effect.
More about the research
In Weyl semimetals, a special type of these materials, such charges also carry a protected spin, the tiny magnetic property of electrons. That makes Weyl semimetals candidates for spin-based electronics (spintronics) and quantum computing. This project asks how these massless charges interact with magnetism in one family of Weyl semimetals.
Why it matters
Coupling massless electrons with magnetism could create new electronic states. As the grant notes, it may open practical ways to control electron spin without an external magnetic field. Such control could eventually support more energy-efficient electronics, spin-based devices and quantum computing. The work adds basic understanding of how these materials could be used in such technologies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Thomas Searles
Howard University, DC·Physics
Measure how reducing Dirac and Weyl semimetals from bulk crystals to single layers changes their optical response, using nonlinear optical spectroscopy from infrared to terahertz frequencies.
Chunhui Du
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Physics·Early-career
Determine how spin spreads through antiferromagnetic insulators and how their alternating Néel order switches, by imaging local magnetic fields with nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond.
Daniel Agterberg
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI·Physics
Develop a comprehensive theory of pseudospin in crystals with non-symmorphic symmetry, where the usual spin-1/2 behavior breaks down, and work out its consequences for Cooper pairing and magnetic ordering.
The school
Ramapo College of New Jersey: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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