Congratulations to Hanyu for receiving a 5-year support through the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program! The project entitled “Probing Quantum Materials Modified by Terahertz Quantum Fluctuations” aims to use ultrafast spectroscopy to study the strong interaction between light and atomic motion in materials from ferroelectric insulators to two-dimensional magnets. The quantum uncertainty principle allows atoms to jitter even at very low temperatures and without any light shining on the materials, possibly modifying the average lattice structures and the ways of energy flow among the hybrid light-matter coupled states called the phonon-polaritons. The project also supports education on optical and quantum materials at Rice and outside campus. More information can be found in the news report here.
