Scanning multi-modality microscopy of moiré quantum matter

Descripción del proyecto

Una sonda de barrido multimodal a nanoescala para estudiar la física de los materiales cuánticos muaré

El efecto muaré es la interferencia mecánica de la luz por redes de líneas superpuestas. Esto puede lograrse superponiendo dos estructuras repetitivas, como mallas o celosías. La manipulación de este efecto a escala atómica en materiales compuestos cuánticos muaré mediante la rotación y el estiramiento de una red respecto a otra puede dar lugar a propiedades especiales. Para aprovechar y controlar los efectos muaré, necesitamos comprender mejor la física subyacente. El equipo del proyecto MoireMultiProbe, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, pretende ofrecer una visión innovadora de la materia cuántica muaré. Su sonda de barrido multimodal a nanoescala, basada en un dispositivo de interferencia cuántica superconductor híbrido en una punta, permite obtener imágenes de múltiples propiedades físicas en una sola muestra con una sensibilidad sin precedentes.

Objetivo

Moir materials are a treasure of mind-blowing scope of phenomena, much of which is still to be discovered. Along with the great opportunities, perplexing experimental and theoretical challenges arise due to numerous degrees of freedom, strong interactions, instabilities, broad tunability, and high sensitivity to exact global and local parameters like twist angles, strain, alignment, screening, and disorder. As a result, each moir device is a mini-universe with its own laws of physics, which cannot be fully unveiled without exploring and cross-correlating a multitude of its microscopic characteristics an almost formidable task. The goal of this project is to develop a multi-modality nanoscale scanning probe that can image a wide variety of physical properties with record sensitivity on a single sample, including currents, potentials, compressibility, magnetization, Berry curvature, topological invariants, superfluid density, temperature, thermal conductivity, dissipation, work, and noise. This powerful tool, based on a hybrid superconducting quantum interference device on a tip, will then be applied to study moir quantum matter over a broad range of variable parameters, including temperatures down to mK range, vector magnetic fields, carrier densities, displacement fields, and response to local potential perturbations. We will focus on moir materials beyond the magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, including multilayer and hybrid twisted van der Waals structures, which offer a fertile platform for realizing novel states of matter. We will address key open questions and provide nanoscale visualization and comprehension of the mechanisms governing the topology, Berry curvature, orbital magnetism, superconducting order parameter, topological magnetic textures, heat and charge transport, dissipation, and noise. This research will provide groundbreaking insight into the complexity and the beauty of the emergent multi-facet physics flourishing in moir materials.