Crystal growth is one of the oldest scientific disciplines, extending far back in the history of mankind. Nowadays these techniques allow for the growth of virtually any material in the form of single crystals with the highest possible degree of order. This has been instrumental in the development of condensed matter physics. Still, the disconnect between scientists that grow materials and those that measure their physical properties is noticeable. Our group attempts to bridge these two worlds, providing an ample expertise in the design and synthesis of new crystals at the service of integration of new materials in devices and the exploration of new physical phenomena.
Chemical transport growth techniques are very versatile and allow exploring a wide variety of elemental combinations. Flux techniques, on the other hand, are well optimized for high mobility materials. Other more specific techniques, also developed in our group, can be tailored in search for a la carte elemental combinations that permit reaching out towards new horizons in physics.
A key aspect of crystalline materials is that they can be processed and integrated into working devices to take advantage of their physical properties both at a fundamental and at an applied level. An interesting family of crystals is the two-dimensional materials, where their all-surface nature makes integration on arbitrary planar devices seamless. Our group studies the integration of few-atom thick crystals in a variety of different optoelectronic device architectures, towards the exploration of new physics.
Electronic transport across the materials and light-matter interactions are two powerful approaches for shedding light on the fundamental physical processes that are in play in crystalline materials. However, these are very rarely put at work concurrently. In operando measurements take advantage of the exploration of matter through simultaneous approaches. For instance, electrical stimuli can give rise to magnetic responses. This allows for unveiling synergistic behaviours between the magnetism and the electronic properties in the materials that we explore. The interplay between electronics, (quantum) magnetism and optics consitutes the core of our research.