Colloquia

SDSU Department of Physics Colloquium

Speaker:
Dr. Yuhang Deng
Department of Physics, University of California San Diego

Abstract:
Correlated electron materials built from lanthanides, actinides, and transition metals host a remarkable variety of emergent phenomena, including unconventional superconductivity, exotic magnetism, heavy-fermion behavior, and topological states. These phenomena arise when strong electronic correlations and large spin–orbit coupling compete and cooperate, often producing complex states that can be delicately tuned by temperature, pressure, magnetic field, or chemical substitution. In this talk, I will present our efforts to probe such materials under extreme conditions of high pressure and intense magnetic fields. Using diamond anvil cells, versatile devices that enable electrical, magnetic, and optical measurements at high pressures, together with complementary high magnetic field techniques, we explore how these controlling parameters reshape quantum phases. Highlights include pressure-induced metallization and suppression of a magnetically ordered conducting surface state in FeSi, structural and valence transitions/changes inUTe2 under compression, and the evolution of multiple superconducting states in U1−x Thx Te2 under high fields. Our results illustrate how pressure, magnetic field, and composition can tip the balance in correlated electron systems, offering new insights into the fundamental mechanisms driving correlated and topological quantum phases.

Bio:
Yuhang Deng received his Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019. He subsequently joined Prof. M. Brian Maple’s group at the University of California San Diego, where he worked as a postdoctoral scholar and is currently an Assistant Project Scientist. His research focuses on the experimental study of quantum materials under extreme conditions, particularly superconductivity and magnetism at high pressures and high magnetic fields.His broader research interests include topological and Kondo insulators, unconventional superconductors, and the application of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers to high-pressure physics.

Note:
Coffee and cookies will be served at 1:50 PM. This colloquium is supported partly by IRA funds.