April 11, 2018
“The Fascinating Quantum World of Two-dimensional Materials: Symmetry, Interaction and Topological Effects”
Symmetry, interaction and topological effects, as well as environmental screening, dominate many of the quantum properties of reduced-dimensional systems and nanostructures. These effects often lead to manifestation of counter-intuitive concepts and phenomena that may not be so prominent or have not been seen in bulk materials. In this talk, I present some fascinating physical phenomena discovered in recent studies of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials. A number of highly interesting and unexpected behaviors have been found – e.g., strongly bound excitons (electron-hole pairs) with unusual energy level structures and new topology-dictated optical selection rules, massless excitons, tunable magnetism and plasmonic properties, electron supercollimation, novel topological phases, etc. – adding to the promise of these 2D materials for exploration of new science and valuable applications.
The Gail and Jeffrey L. Kodosky ’70 Lecture Series
Jeff Kodosky received a BS degree in Physics from Rensselaer in 1970. He is Co‐founder, Director, and Fellow at National Instruments, a leading developer and manufacturer of integrated software and hardware for engineers and scientists. LabVIEW, cocreated by Kodosky, is the industry‐standard graphical programming environment for measurement and automation. Jeff is a Trustee of Rensselaer since 2002. Gail is a native of Troy, NY and is a retired administrative assistant. Gail and Jeff live in Austin, TX and have two daughters and four grandchildren.