Dr. Martin Rodriquez-Vega
By Rachael Beardsley
NQPI Editorial Intern
Dr. Martin Rodriguez-Vega, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, discussed light-driven quantum materials on Oct. 3 as part of the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute seminar series.
Rodriquez-Vega spoke about recent efforts toward understanding mechanisms for the control of magnetic order in materials using low-frequency drives and how this problem applies to recently-discovered two-dimensional magnetic materials.
“One of the goals in condensed matter physics is to be able to control ordered states of matter,” Rodriguez-Vega said.
There are several ways to achieve this control, he says, but most involve changing the structure of the system by inserting other atoms. With the new mechanisms being developed, none of that is necessary.
”With this mechanism, you can have a way to change the properties of a particular material without needing to do any drastic profound changes to the material itself,” Rodriguez-Vega said.
Next, he plans to study the system’s effect on metallic ferromagnets, materials with unpaired electrons that will align with each other in response to a magnetic field.
“We want to see what the possibilities are with that type of material,” he said. “And besides that, we want to study topological materials and see if light is able to induce topological phase transitions.”
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