Simon Fortier is preparing to reopen our two laboratories: cooling cryogenic systems, repair and maintenance of pumps as well as implementing security measures. This is the first step towards restarting research!
We hope everyone is safe in these uncertain times. In the meantime, we are lucky to work from home and we keep smiling. . We will be back soon :) .
Using thermal conductivity measurements, we investigated the issue of potential mobile spin excitations in a promising quantum spin liquid candidate and found no evidence that spinons contribute to heat transport. Despite measuring eight high-quality crystals, we were not able to reproduce the findings of a previous report on the same material that had found the opposite result.
Thermal conductivity of the quantum spin liquid candidate EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2: No evidence of mobile gapless excitations
P. Bourgeois-Hope et al, PRX 9, 041051 (2019).
Congratulations to Gaël Grissonnanche, a post-doctoral student in Taillefer's group, for winning the Relève étoile Louis-Berlinguet. This award, granted but the Fonds de recherche- Nature et technologies (Québec), recognizes the excellence of research conducted by university-level students. Gaël received this award following her article Giant thermal Hall conductivity in the pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors published in Nature in July 2019.
Giant thermal Hall conductivity in the pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors
G. Grissonnanche et al. Nature 571, 376-380 (2019).
Giant thermal Hall effect reveals novel particles in high-temperature superconductors
Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud, Institut Quantique
Crafting new particles in the core of superconducting materials
Hugues Vincelette, Institut Quantique
Strong interactions between electrons is an inexhaustible source of intriguing collective properties. The quantum materials we study include unconventional superconductors, spin liquids, topological insulators and Weyl semimetals, among others. Our experimental approach consists of measuring the electric, thermal and thermoelectric transport properties of these materials under different conditions of temperature, magnetic field and pressure. These measurements allow us to explore the behaviour of electrons and to describe the underlying interactions.
Unconventional superconductors, spin liquids, topological insulators, Weyl semimetals.
Property of a material that allows it to transport an electric current with zero resistance and to expel a magnetic field.
Electric resistivity, thermal conductivity, Hall effect, Seebeck effect, Nernst effect, Righi-Leduc effect.
Two dilution fridges allow us to reach temperatures as low as a few dozen millikelvins.
Superconducting coils give us access to magnetic fields up to 20 T.
Our pressure cells can apply up to 2 GPa, the pressure of roughly 20 000 atmospheres.
Photo : UdeS - Martin Blache
Département de Physique
Université de Sherbrooke
2500 boul. Université, Sherbrooke (Québec)
Canada J1K 2R1