OXWALD · 2D Oxide and van der Waals layered devices

Two-dimensional (2D) Van der Waals (VdW) materials have started a new era in the physics and chemistry of materials full of exciting challenges in fundamental science and also holding impressive technological promises connected to their atomic scale thickness. However, electrons in current 2D materials, with graphene being the most representative example, do not “feel” each other and their electronic properties are interpreted within single particle models. Correlated 3d transition metal oxides (CCO) are prototype correlated materials where the unscreened Coulomb repulsion between electrons in narrow 3d bands gives rise to a delicate entanglement between electronic attributes: charge, orbital and spin. Their complex interactions is at the bottom of non-trivial entanglements responsible for a wide variety of electronic ground states (superconductivity, multiferroicity, spin or charge order, quantum magnets, etc). Moreover, these electronic phases can be manipulated by external stimuli (electric field, light, magnetic field etc) giving rise to a plethora of coupled responses. Typically these CCOs present broader range of functionalities than conventional 2D materials. In OXWALD the fellow Victor Rouco, will search for new synthesis strategies of 2D CCO freestanding monolayers, and their combinations in multifunctional heterostructures with conventional VdW materials. The main goal will be to imprint electron correlated groundstates into the one-electron states of vdW materials. This fellowship will be carried out at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) under the supervision of Prof. Jacobo Santamaria with a secondment at the Institute of Materials Research ICMM-CSIC also in Madrid.