LSIE_2D · Strain, Lattice, Interactions and Entanglement in novel Two-Dimensional materials
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2013-09-01 → 2016-08-31
- EU contribution
- €75,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-CIG
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Strain, Lattice, Interactions and Entanglement in novel Two-Dimensional materials.
Few years after the isolation of the first truly two-dimensional material, graphene, the frontier of the research in the field has shifted towards other novel two-dimensional materials, as transition-metal dichalcogenides or black phosphorus, which present more promising physical characteristics than graphene. Aim of the present project has been to investigate in detail at the microscopic level the fundamental physical many-body mechanisms that control the electronic, transport and optical properties of these layered materials, with particular focus on electron-electron and electron-lattice interactions. Final goal of the theoretical research in this field has to achieve a robust understanding of how manipulate the different degrees of freedoms here present (spin, orbital, valley, lattice) by means of external conditions (temperature, strain, pressure, disorder, etc.) At the same time, the leadership acquired by the PI has permitted the project to be constantly updated in regards to the new developments in the field, including thus in the project activities the most recent cutting-edge interests. Within this context, more specific objects of investigation of the present project have been so far: 1) analysis of the effect of the strong spin-orbit coupling in the whole Brillouin zone, by means of a tight-binding modeling; 2) study of the role of the interlayer coupling on the dielectric properties of two-dimensional compounds; 3) robust description of strain effects in transition-metal dichalcogenides in terms of quantum gauge field; 4) study of structural properties and role of the quantum flexural lattice fluctuations of the rippling/crumpling instability in quantum two-dimensional crystalline membranes; 5) analysis of microscopic model of many-body interactions and possible broken symmetry phases in graphene on substrates; 6) study of the role of homogeneous and inhomogeneous strain on the electronic, transport, optical and topological properties of transition-metal dichalcogenides, with particular regards to the role of the edge states; 7) analysis of the unconventional dc transport properties in low-carrier density spin-orbit Rashba systems, pointing out the breakdown of the paradigmatic Boltzmann-Drude description; 8) analysis of the anisotropic optical and electrostatic (AFM) properties of uniaxially corrugated MoS2 induced by the underlying lattice modulation; 9) role of the c-axis quantum lattice fluctuations on the electronic and optical properties of single layer - and multi-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides. Besides the scientific goals, the present CIG project has provided a powerful support to the development of the professional career and independence of the Fellow, which has at the moment a permanent position at the Host Institution and has been in this period Group Leader and Scientific Supervisor of the research activity of two undergraduate students and two junior PostDoc. Thanks to the leadership acquired from the project, the PI is also Coordinator and Project Manager of the CNR Unit of a Italian Research Project PRIN2015 which has been recently approved for funding by Italian Ministry MIUR. In addition the PI is constantly participating to the main scientific project calls of Horizon2020 (ITN, FET), in fruitful networking with the main european research groups.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The isolation of graphene in 2004 has triggered the most promising expectations in the field of condensed matter. One of the main drawbacks for realistic application is however the lack of a band gap in single layer compounds. To overcome this shortcoming, alternative two-dimensional materials, like MoS2 and other dichalcogenides, are recently becoming popular, with the advantage of presenting an intrinsic gap. One of the interesting aspects of these materials is the possibility of modulating the electronic properties by means of controlled external sources, as for instance strain and otherlattice effects. The scenario is here much richer and promising than graphene since the valleys degrees of freedom are here strongly entangled with the spin and with the orbital degrees of freedom, suggesting that new channels to manipulate the electronic, transport, optical properties of these materials are here possible.In this project we will investigate at the microscopic level the fundamental physical mechanisms that control the electronic, transport and optical properties of these layered materials. Motivated by the evidence that pressure and strain can induce sizable remarkable effects on the band structure, we will address the issue of the electron-lattice coupling in a wider context, investigating how these effects are operative at a local scale, how they will depend on the number of layers and their stacking order, on external electric fields, etc. Probably even more interesting, motivated by the strong entanglement between charge/lattice/spin/orbital degrees of freedom, is the study how the manipulation of one different degree can tune the other ones. Objective of the program is to identify suitable specific mechanisms of tunable interplay between the different degrees of freedom and to investigate at the largest possible extent their physical properties.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE · RomaCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union