Tuesday, April 30
2:00 pm ET/11:00 am PT
Following the topological classification of electronic phases, interest has grown in materials with unique electronic or magnetic properties driven by topology and interactions. While approximately 30% of materials have been reported to be topological, topological insulators are still quite rare. Magnetic topological insulators are even harder to find. Identifying crystallographic features that can host the coexistence of a topological insulating phase with magnetic order is vital for finding intrinsic magnetic topological insulator materials. In the first part of the talk, I hope to discuss some materials design strategies and explain why Eu-based Zintl compounds are a suitable choice for investigating new magnetic topological insulators. In the second part of the talk, I will be discussing how charge order in another Eu-based intermetallic can result in a topologically nontrivial phase, resulting in reduced symmetry from 8-fold double Dirac states to 4-fold Dirac states and leading to a simple cubic Heisenberg antiferromagnet.
Tanya Berry is a Princeton Center for Complex Materials postdoctoral fellow and works on topological materials with Prof. Leslie M. Schoop since Fall 2022. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from University of California, Davis in 2015 and worked on microwave-assisted nanoparticle synthesis with Prof. Susan M. Kauzlarich. After graduation, she worked on half Heusler thermoelectric materials with Prof. Claudia Felser at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics for Solids until 2017. Tanya then got her Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry in 2022 from Johns Hopkins University with Prof. Tyrel M. McQueen. During her Ph.D. she worked in a variety of areas with a primary focus on magnetic quantum materials and she received the 2022 Sarah and Adolph Roseman Achievement Award and 2024 APS’s Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Experimental Condensed Matter or Materials Physics for her work. She is invested in materials discovery through chemical design principles and specializes in bulk single crystal growths.