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Research Interest
Symmetry organizes the quantum ground state. Its breaking produces magnetic, structural, and electronic order. We work with van der Waals crystals in the few-layer limit, where reduced dimensionality changes the landscape of possible orders. Through tailored heterostructures, altered symmetries and competing interactions give rise to new ground states. Polarization optics reveals their order parameters and the elementary excitations that follow from symmetry breaking. Linear dichroism senses rotational symmetry breaking. Circular dichroism detects the loss of time-reversal symmetry. Raman spectroscopy resolves crystallographic point groups and the collective modes governed by interactions. Together these measurements clarify how symmetry and interactions determine the Hamiltonian.
News
Upcoming invited talks: Condensed Matter Seminar at Washington University in St. Louis (October 2026); Physics Colloquium at Wake Forest University (October 2026)
03/2026 Zhong Lin delivered an invited presentation at the 2026 International Workshop on Automated 2D Materials and Quantum Devices (A2DMQD), organized by the MonArk Quantum Foundry. His talk is titled “Symmetry, Collective Order, and Emergent Responses in Layered Quantum Materials”.
12/2025 Zhong Lin delivered an invited Condensed Matter Physics Seminar at University of Delaware, titled “Probing Emergent Phenomena in Layered Magnets.”
11/2025 Zhong Lin delivered an invited Physics Colloquium at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, titled “Probing Emergent Phenomena in Layered Magnets.”
11/2025 Zhong Lin delivered an invited talk at the NYSS-APS Topical Symposium on Frontiers in Quantum Materials and Phenomena, titled “Spin–lattice coupling in layered antiferromagnets.”
06/2025 New publication in Nature Materials! Y.-X. Wang, T. K. M. Graham, R. Rama-Eiroa, M. A. Islam, M. H. Badarneh, R. Nunes Gontijo, G. P. Tiwari, T. Adhikari, X.-Y. Zhang, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, C. Besson, E. J. G. Santos, Z. Lin, and B. B. Zhou, Configurable antiferromagnetic domains and lateral exchange bias in atomically thin CrPS4, Nature Materials (2025). Link News & Views News
Other news
02/2026 Ganesh Tiwari won a Doctoral Focus Fellowship. Congratulations, Ganesh.
05/2025 Our graduate students, Ganesh Tiwari and Tibendra Adhikari, have become members of Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics and Astronomy Honor Society. Congratulations, Ganesh and Tibendra!
05/2025 Our undergraduate student, Jeff Lam, has received the Brownridge Award for outstanding research. Congratulations, Jeff!
01/2025 Our undergraduate student, Jeff Lam, has been awarded a prestigious $10,000 SCALE fellowship to support his project within our group. This fellowship provides funding for his salary, as well as for research-related expenses, including equipment, materials, and supplies. Congratulations, Jeff!
01/2025 Our undergraduate student, Sophia Sabelja, has been admitted to a graduate program at the University of Tennessee. She will be conducting research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Congratulations, Sophia!
05/2023 Paul DePola received the Brownridge's Award for Outstanding Research! Congratulations!
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