Next Level Two-Dimensional Quantum Materials

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have received widespread attention in the past two decades due to their remarkable physical, mechanical and chemical properties, and our ability to integrate them into devices. In this seminar, I will present our recent work in the development of the next generation of 2D materials. I will first discuss how magnetic order strongly couples to optical transitions in a new magnetic semiconductor developed in my laboratories, CrSBr. I will then introduce the synthesis and characterization of the first <i>f</i>-electron-based heavy fermion metal, CeSiI, that is also a 2D van der Waals (vdW) material. Conceptually, our synthetic design takes a traditional 3D intermetallic heavy fermion compound and slices it into atomically-thin vdW sheets by incorporating iodine into the structure. The resulting material is cleavable and effectively 2D electronically, even in bulk crystals.