MSE Seminar: Chenhao Jin

Event interval: Single day event
Accessibility Contact: Matthew Yankowitz, myank@uw.edu
Event Types: Lectures/Seminars

Title: Probing emergent excitations in semiconducting moiré superlattices

Abstract: Semiconducting moiré superlattices recently emerged as an attractive platform for engineering new quantum phenomena. While a plethora of intriguing ground states are reported, their dynamics and excitations remain largely unexplored, which govern their responses to intrinsic fluctuations and external driving. In this talk, I will discuss our recent efforts to investigate excitations in semiconducting moiré superlattices. Using an ultrafast wide-field imaging technique, we record their complete space-time evolution, such as space-and-time-resolved transport. This allows us to simultaneously capture and separate multiple collective excitations, identify their nature and distinguish them from single-particle ones, which have been challenging from steady-state measurements. These emergent excitations govern dynamic responses of the system and play a central role in phase stability and transition. Our results highlight new insights encoded in collective excitations and open avenues for studying and engineering correlated quantum systems through nonequilibrium approaches.

Bio: Dr. Chenhao Jin is an assistant professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara. He received a B.S. in Physics from Peking university and PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley. He was a Kavli fellow at Cornell University between before moving to UC Santa Barbara in 2021. Dr. Jin’s research focuses on developing new optical spectroscopy and imaging techniques to "watch" quantum phenomena in space and time; and has made seminal contributions to optical studies of van der Waals materials and moiré superlattices. Dr. Jin has received multiple awards, including AFOSR YIP award, NSF CAREER award, Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists, and Sloan Research Fellowship.