Bartomeu Montserrat

University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Bartomeu Monserrat is the Gianna Angelopoulos Lecturer in Computational Materials Science at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy of the University of Cambridge.

He obtained a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2015, and was then appointed Henslow Research Fellow (2015-19), also at the University of Cambridge. He concurrently held positions as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Rutgers University (USA, 2015-17) and later on as Winton Advanced Research Fellow (2018-19) at the University of Cambridge.

His group works on the development and use of quantum mechanical methods to investigate material properties, spanning a range of topics in the physical sciences that include topological materials, photovoltaics, superconductors, and planetary physics. This work has been recognised with the 2018 Psi-K Volker Heine Young Investigator Award.

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Talk 1 (ONLINE)

TOPIC

Topology, surface materials, topological phonons

TITLE

Topological phonons

ABSTRACT

Topology has emerged as a new tool to classify and understand phases of matter. While topological invariants are typically associated with the bulk of materials, the most striking manifestations of topology appear on the surface of materials as a result of the so-called bulk-boundary correspondence. These surface states are associated with robust phenomena, such as dissipantionless charge or spin currents in electronic systems, and dissipationless thermal currents in phononic systems. In this talk, I will give an overview of topological phonons. First, I will discuss single-gap topologies, in which topological phonons appear as nodal points or lines. Second, I will discuss multi-gap topologies, a nascent field in which topological phonons could be used for non-Abelian braiding. Throughout the talk, I will exemplify the various manifestations of topology with concrete material examples.