Research Description
Electrons can organize into collective quantum states that are difficult to measure and control, especially in layered materials where strong interactions often come with structural disorder. Jia I.A. Li aims to combine two very different systems—free electrons above helium or neon and atomically thin layered materials below—to create a cleaner and more tunable setting for studying these effects. His group will build devices that electrically couple the two layers, measure how strongly they interact, and test whether ordered free-electron patterns can impose a controllable potential on the material beneath. The project will also examine whether the hybrid structure can support paired states, interactions between electrons and excitons, and new ways to detect symmetry-breaking phases through transport.
Research Impact
Professor Li’s hybrid platform could make it possible to study coherent and strongly interacting quantum behavior across two complementary electronic systems in a single experiment. If successful, the platform would provide a new way to engineer electronic states in layered materials, probe how different quantum particles influence one another, and test methods for controlling free electrons with long coherence times. More broadly, the work could expand the experimental tools available for quantum simulation, precision measurement, and the study of complex electronic phases that are hard to access in existing materials alone.
Message sent
Thank you for sharing.
related links
Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative 
Science
University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics
Back