Project Details
Advancing foundational understanding and the ability to manipulate quantum magnetism, entanglement, and topology are critical for driving transformative innovations in critical technologies such as computation, information, and energy applications. These needs are outlined in the context of the co-design paradigm envisioned in the BES Basic Research Needs (BRN) report on Microelectronics and the need to control and exploit quantum mechanical behaviors for novel functionalities as described in the BES BRN on Quantum Materials. The overarching goal of this project is to achieve a fundamental understanding of how anisotropy, competing interactions, frustration, and disorder are intertwined and can be tuned to produce and control collective quantum and topological states of matter. To meet this challenge, the Specific Aims of the project are: (1) Elucidate the underlying interactions stabilizing topological spin textures and novel multi-Q spin configurations; (2) Understand the quantum mechanical origins of magnetic continua and how multi-magnon interactions both impact and reveal the nature of quantum magnetism; (3) Unravel how disorder impacts and can be used to influence prototypes of quantum magnetism. Our approach is to combine the multi-faceted information gained through neutron scattering investigations of the static and dynamic properties of carefully characterized materials with the application of sophisticated theoretical models and simulation techniques. The principal outcome of this work will be the construction of microscopic, physically realistic models that describe how quantum fluctuations, interactions, and disorder are manifested in macroscopic behavior, thereby providing guidelines for identifying and manipulating systems to produce specific quantum properties.
ORNL/UT-Knoxville Joint Faculty Affiliated Researcher
David Mandrus, Professor
University of Tennessee
dmandrus@utk.edu
(865) 974-3609
