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DTSTAMP:20261014T052544Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20140401T191914Z
DTSTART:20140401T193000Z
DTEND:20140401T210000Z
UID:event1192@bu.edu
URL:http://physics.bu.edu/internal/events/show/1192
SUMMARY:Massless and Massive Electrons: Relativistic Physics in Condensed M
	atter Systems
DESCRIPTION:Featuring Vidya Madhavan\, Boston College\nHosted by: David Cam
	pbell\nPoster: http://physics.bu.edu/posters/2014_Spring/0401_Madhavan.pdf\
	n\nPart of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.\n\nAbstract: \n Electro
	ns in free space have a well-defined mass. Recently\, a new class of materi
	als called topological insulators were discovered\, where the low energy el
	ectrons have zero mass. In fact\, these electrons can be described by the s
	ame massless Dirac equation that is used to describe relativistic particles
	 travelling close to the speed of light. In this talk I will describe our r
	ecent experimental and theoretical investigations of a class of materials c
	alled Topological Crystalline Insulators (TCIs) [1]. TCIs are recently disc
	overed topological materials [2\,3] where topology and crystal symmetry int
	ertwine to create linearly dispersing Fermions similar to graphene. To stud
	y this material we used a scanning tunneling microscope. With the help of o
	ur high-resolution data\, I will show how zero-mass electrons and massive e
	lectrons can coexist in the same material. I will discuss the conditions to
	 obtain these zero mass electrons as well the method to impart a controllab
	le mass to the particles and show how our studies create a path to engineer
	ing the Dirac band gap and realizing interaction-driven topological quantum
	 phenomena in TCIs.\n\n \n [1]  Y. Okada\, et.al \, Observation of Dirac no
	de formation and mass acquisition in a topological crystalline insulator\, 
	Science 341\, 1496-1499 (2013)\n\n[2]  L. Fu\, Topological Crystalline Insu
	lators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106\, 106802 (2011)\n\n[3]  T. H. Hsieh et al.\, T
	opological crystalline insulators in the SnTe material class. Nat.Commun. 3
	\, 982 (2012)
LOCATION:SCI 109\, 590 Commonwealth Avenue\, 02215
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
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