Research Projects

Quantum materials are at the forefront of research activities in condensed matter physics because of their potential in next-generation technologies. Accurate predictive modeling of quantum materials and their responses is therefore crucial for discovering new physical phenomena and optimizing their application capabilities. In this proposal, we will broadly focus on material-specific modeling of three different areas of the response of quantum materials. These are (i) quantum geometry-related transport response, including various non-linear responses (ii) magnetoelectric coupling and quadrupolar electric susceptibility-related novel optical responses, such as natural optical activity, gyrotropic birefringence, optical Axion coupling etc. and (iii) novel plasmonic responses. Our choice of materials are topological materials, such as topological semimetals, Kagome metals etc.; magnetic materials with a focus on antiferromagnets, altermagnets, axion insulators; non-magnetic chiral materials with real space structural chirality, and spiral magnets with real space spin chirality. We will start with low energy-based generic model Hamiltonians as required to explore new physics, make judicious choice about the material selection, perform density functional theory (DFT)-based first-principles calculation and build material-specific tight binding (Wannier function-based) models. We will develop 'home-built' codes for computing various novel responses because many of these responses cannot be computed using publicly available codes. This project is expected to contribute to the cutting edge of research in various areas, including quantum geometry, nonlinear transport and optical and plasmonic response. This approach will connect various fundamental areas of physics, including topology, quantum geometry, and Axion physics, to realistic material-specific simulations. We expect to predict new candidate materials that will harbor novel quantum metric-related effects, asses the promise of various quantum materials for novel plasmon applications, and explore the novel optical responses including gyrotropic birefrangance, natural optical activity, optical Axion coupling in a wide range of materials. We will also collaborate closely with experimental colleagues from the center and outside to test our theoretical predictions. This project is, therefore, expected to integrate the fundamental concepts of physics with experimentally testable material-specific predictions. Such an approach paves the way for assessing the potential of quantum materials for applications in next-generation technologies.