Research Projects

Since its inception with the discovery of graphene in 2004, the study of two-dimensional (2D) materials has been considered a leading area of interest in condensed matter physics by the scientific and technological communities alike. These materials are characterized by a layered structure where the layers are held together with weak van der Waals interactions, making it possible to exfoliate atomically thin flakes of these materials, thereby giving rise to a plethora of unique properties. 2D materials exhibit various exciting phenomena as a function of thickness. While the transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g. MX2, M: Mo, W; X: S, Se, Te) show various electronic band structures including semiconducting and topological, the magnetically important 2D systems like MPX3 (M: Mn, Ni, Fe; X: S, Se), NX2 (N: Mn, V, Cr; X: S, Se, Te), transition metal dihalide/trihalide compounds show novel magnetic ground states in flakes down to atomic thickness. The study of quantum interactions of phonons with various degrees of freedom like charge and spin in these materials provides essential information about the properties of these materials that are vital to potential applications including (Opto-)electronic, spintronics, and magnetic devices. The broad interest of this project would be to investigate the quantum interactions of phonons with other degrees of freedom with varying thickness, charge doping, as well as tailored heterostructures with appropriate interfaces and also to explore the possible tunability of their properties. We intend to explore a variety of 2D materials and their heterostructures (e.g., Graphene, MoTe2, MoS2, WS2, VS2, MnPS3, NiPS3, and so on.) for this investigation. We will fabricate samples (flakes) with varying layer thickness and engineered heterostructures having a variety of interfaces by using the micro-mechanical exfoliation technique and hot pickup/dry transfer mechanism. The fabricated samples will be characterized by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy to measure their thicknesses. We propose to engineer the thermal, electronic, and magnetic properties of the 2D materials by tailoring the interface through the fabrication of a variety of heterostructures and investigate them by Raman spectroscopy at variable temperatures and magnetic/electric fields. Our preliminary results are very promising and suggest the possibility of a novel route toward new emergent properties. The significant outcome of the proposed research project will be the contribution toward understanding the fundamentals of the various quantum interactions in these 2D materials and their heterostructures which will be vital to the appropriate designing of the materials and device structures having potential applications.