FLEET Research Seminar: Danfeng Li – Synthesis and Electronic Structure of Nickelate Superconductors

EVENT FLYER

catch up on youtube

Abstract: The broad agenda of designing and synthesising materials with strongly correlated behaviour, in a controllable and predictable manner, poses an exciting research frontier. The discovery of superconductivity in cuprates decades ago had stirred enduring interest in searching for analogous materials systems.

In this talk, I will present our observation of superconductivity in an infinite-layer nickelate thin film synthesized by a soft-chemistry approach, and the study of its superconducting anisotropy and phase diagram. This system is of particular interest due to its potential relationship with the high-T_c cuprate superconductors, in that they share a similar crystal structure and starting electronic configuration. I also highlight the key aspects of its electronic structure, which turn out to be inherently distinct from cuprates, including the unusual role of Nd bands.

Finally, I will suggest how new applications of kinetic-based synthetic approaches in oxide heterostructures provide a broad opportunity to create novel quantum systems in previously inaccessible ways.

Dr Danfeng Li is currently an Assistant Professor of Physics at City University of Hong Kong. Dr Li obtained his B.Eng. from Zhejiang University and M.Phil. from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (advisor: Prof Ji-yan Dai). Shortly after earning his Ph.D. (2016) in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics at University of Geneva (advisor: Prof Jean-Marc Triscone), Dr Li joined Stanford University as a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, working with Prof Harold Hwang. He started working at CityU since November 2020.

Dr Li’s main research interests span across condensed-matter physics and materials science, focusing on atomic-scale fabrication of oxide heterostructures and nanomembranes, kinetic based synthesis of unconventional quantum materials, low-dimensional superconductivity, oxide interfaces for emergent states, etc. In 2019, a team led by Dr Li and Prof Hwang discovered the first nickelate superconductor, which had been a target of continuous materials search for over three decades.