Colloquium

Upcoming Colloquium

An Electronic Structure Toolbox for Quantum Materials
Dr. Nicholas Dale, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

February 9, 2026
11:00am in HSCI-105

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Understanding the fundamental nature of quantum phases is essential to sustaining and advancing humanity’s information infrastructure. The electronic structure hosts the information necessary to understand how functional properties arise in matter. Here, I present a comprehensive research platform for quantum materials that integrates prediction, experimental architecture, and characterization.

We apply this platform to Altermagnets, an emerging class of magnets beyond typical ferromagnets and antiferromagnets and whose nonrelativistic spin-splitting (NRSS) of electronic bands holds both connections to unconventional superconductivity and transformative potential for energy-efficient electronics. We combine first-principles calculations, symmetry analysis, and two spin-resolved spectroscopies—angle-resolved photoemission (spin-ARPES) and our newly developed spin- and angle-resolved electron reflection spectroscopy (spin-ARRES)—to achieve the first complete momentum-resolved mapping of relativistic (RSS) and nonrelastivistic (NRSS) spin splitting in CoNb₄Se₈. This study establishes CoNb₄Se₈ as a prototypical g-wave altermagnet, and validates that an integrated theory-experiment framework is not only efficient but also adaptable to other phases of matter with distinct electronic signatures.

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