Dr Denver Li is currently an Assistant Professor of Physics at City University of Hong Kong. Dr Li obtained his B.Eng. from Zhejiang University and M.Phil. from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (advisor: Prof Ji-yan Dai). Shortly after earning his Ph.D. (2016) in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics at University of Geneva (advisor: Prof Jean-Marc Triscone), Dr Li joined Stanford University as a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, working with Prof Harold Hwang. He started working at CityU since November 2020. Dr Li's main research interests span across condensed-matter physics and materials science, focusing on atomic-scale fabrication of oxide heterostructures and nanomembranes, kinetic based synthesis of unconventional quantum materials, low-dimensional superconductivity, oxide interfaces for emergent states, etc. In 2019, a team led by Dr Li and Prof Hwang discovered the first nickelate superconductor, which had been a target of continuous materials search for over three decades. For his groundbreaking discovery, Dr Li was named to the list of 2021 MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 (China).
The discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates has engendered reviving interest in the study of a cuprate-analog system [1,2]. Notably, superconducting nickelates display signatures of intriguing similarities and distinctions to the cuprates in their phase diagrams, antiferromagnetic interactions, rare-earth dependence, and superconducting anisotropy, among others. Partially owing to the non-trivial challenges in materials synthesis and their thin-film nature, experimental demonstration of the intrinsic properties of this family of materials has still been limited [3,4]. In this talk, I will present our latest developments in alternative synthesis approaches for the high-quality Nd-series of the materials system and probing of their electronic structure/properties, in a broader context of the role that chemical and structural environments can play. Our approach may offer new opportunities to overcoming the difficulties in stabilizing this otherwise thermodynamically unstable family of materials.
[1] D. Li et al., Nature 572, 624 (2019).
[2] D. Li et al., Physical Review Letters 125, 27001 (2020).
[3] K. Lee et al., APL Materials 8, 041107 (2020).
[4] K. Lee et al., arXiv: 2203.02580 (2022).