Speaker: Yong P. Chen, Purdue University

Time: 3:30pm, Friday, May 24, 2013

Venue: Conference Hall 322, Science Building, Tsinghua University

Abstract: Electronic systems with strong spin-orbit coupling and their transport properties are at the core of various important areas in condensed matter physics and associated applications, ranging from spin-Hall effect and spintronics to topological insulators and majorana fermions. Recently, it also becomes possible to create atomic quantum gases (both bosonic and fermionic) with “synthetic” spin orbit coupling, realizing a tunable cold atom “quantum simulator” to explore spin-orbit physics and related novel quantum phases. In this talk, I will discuss a few experiments in my laboratory studying quantum transport in an electronic topological insulator (featuring both the topological surface state and a Rashba spin orbit coupled 2D electron gas) as well as a spin-orbit coupled atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). I will show how to generate spin polarized transport and probe spin-momentum locking in both systems, and discuss possible interplay between spin-orbit coupling and superconductivity or superfluidity.