Please join Yale Chemistry for a junior faculty candidate seminar in Physical Chemistry with Frank Gao, TQI Postdoctoral Fellow from University of Texas at Austin.
Summary: Material functionalities, whether arising from chemical reactions, phase transitions, or physicochemical transformations, are fundamentally governed by nonequilibrium dynamics. In complex materials, the interplay among diverse degrees of freedom—such as charge, lattice, and spin—gives rise to a wide variety of emergent behaviors. Unlocking these intricate interactions is crucial for achieving control over material properties and enabling advanced functionalities.
In this talk, Frank Gao will highlight recent progress in uncovering and manipulating these dynamic interactions within complex systems. First, he will discuss the discovery of nonlinear couplings between distinct spin waves in noncollinear magnets, revealed through multidimensional terahertz spectroscopy. He will demonstrate that these previously elusive interactions are powerful tools that can be harnessed to shape material ground states and process spin-encoded information at terahertz speeds.
Next, Frank Gao will turn to the layered multiferroic NiI₂, whose electron spins spontaneously organize into chiral helices that intricately couple the material’s electric and magnetic properties. By employing complementary ultrafast microscopy probes, we disentangle the intertwined polarization and magnetization dynamics, revealing a record-breaking dynamic magnetoelectric coupling and natural optical activity at terahertz frequencies. This work unveils the critical factors necessary for enhanced coupling strengths and paves the way for high-performance, atomically thin magnetoelectric devices.
More information on Frank Gao’s research can be found here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user…
Faculty Host: Prof. Patrick Vaccaro
This seminar can be viewed online here: Panopto