Spin physics in 2D van der Waals materials
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Theo Murphy meeting organised by Professor Hidekazu Kurebayashi, Dr Elton Santos, Professor Cecilia Mattevi, Professor Irina Grigorieva and Professor Konstantin Novoselov FRS.
The dimensionality of materials determines their electronic structures and their fundamental properties. Magnetic order in truly two dimensions has only been discovered in 2017, and since then a plethora of exciting research avenues to understand, manipulate and implement 2D-materials in practical applications has been intensely pursued. This workshop will assemble world-leading scientists to discuss the frontiers of the field.
Programme
The programme, including speaker biographies and abstracts, is available below but please note the programme may be subject to change.
Poster session
There will be a poster session on Monday 16 February. Registered attendees will be invited to submit a proposed poster title and abstract (up to 200 words). Acceptances may be made on a rolling basis so we recommend submitting as soon as possible in case the session becomes full. Submissions made within one month of the meeting may not be included in the programme booklet.
Attending this event
- Free to attend and in-person only
- When requesting an invitation, please briefly state your expertise and reasons for attending
- Requests are reviewed by the meeting organisers on a rolling basis. You will receive a link to register if your request has been successful
- Catering options will be available to purchase upon registering. Participants are responsible for booking their own accommodation. Please do not book accommodation until you have been invited to attend the meeting by the meeting organisers
Enquiries: contact the Scientific Programmes team.
Organisers
Schedule
Chair
Professor Hidekazu Kurebayashi
University College London, UK
Professor Hidekazu Kurebayashi
University College London, UK
Hide Kurebayashi is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics and Nanoelectronics at two institutes, UCL and Tohoku University. Before joining UCL, he worked at the University of Cambridge as a JST-PRESTO research fellow in the Cavendish laboratory, where he also completed his PhD in 2010. He leads two experimental research groups in the UK and Japan, working on spintronics and spin dynamics. His recent research interest includes spin-orbit transport in inversion-broken and/or low-dimensional crystals such as van der Waals materials, neuromorphic computing and coherent photon-magnon coupling in nano-systems. For his research, he received the JSPS Prize, Leverhulme Research Fellowship, The Young Scientists’ Award within The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology by Japanese government, UCL Future Leader Award, JST-PRESTO Research Fellowship, Darwin College Research Fellowship, Runner-up of the Abdus Salam Prize, ORS and the Nakajima Foundation scholarship.
| 08:15-08:20 |
Welcome by the Royal Society and lead organiser
Professor Hidekazu KurebayashiUniversity College London, UK
Professor Hidekazu KurebayashiUniversity College London, UK Hide Kurebayashi is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics and Nanoelectronics at two institutes, UCL and Tohoku University. Before joining UCL, he worked at the University of Cambridge as a JST-PRESTO research fellow in the Cavendish laboratory, where he also completed his PhD in 2010. He leads two experimental research groups in the UK and Japan, working on spintronics and spin dynamics. His recent research interest includes spin-orbit transport in inversion-broken and/or low-dimensional crystals such as van der Waals materials, neuromorphic computing and coherent photon-magnon coupling in nano-systems. For his research, he received the JSPS Prize, Leverhulme Research Fellowship, The Young Scientists’ Award within The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology by Japanese government, UCL Future Leader Award, JST-PRESTO Research Fellowship, Darwin College Research Fellowship, Runner-up of the Abdus Salam Prize, ORS and the Nakajima Foundation scholarship. |
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| 08:20-08:55 |
Mystery of magnetic exciton in van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS3
NiPS3 was among the first van der Waals magnets to be exfoliated down to a monolayer in 2016 and remains one of the most intriguing members of this class. Notably, it hosts an exceptionally narrow magnetic exciton below its antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of 155 K. This exciton has been proposed to originate from a transition between two quantum-entangled states: the Zhang-Rice triplet and the Zhang-Rice singlet, and to exhibit remarkable polarisation. Despite extensive experimental confirmation of these observations by multiple groups, the precise microscopic mechanism underlying the exciton formation remains a topic of active debate. In this talk, I will present recent experimental data and theoretical insights that help unravel the nature of this exciton. 
Professor Je-Geun ParkSeoul National University, Korea
Professor Je-Geun ParkSeoul National University, Korea |
| 08:55-09:10 |
Discussion
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| 09:10-09:45 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Xiaodong XuUniversity of Washington Seattle, US
Professor Xiaodong XuUniversity of Washington Seattle, US |
| 09:45-09:55 |
Discussion
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| 09:55-10:30 |
Break
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| 10:30-11:05 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Felix Casanova
Professor Felix Casanova |
| 11:05-11:15 |
Discussion
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| 11:15-11:50 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Luis BalicasFlorida State University, US
Professor Luis BalicasFlorida State University, US |
| 11:50-12:00 |
Discussion
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| 12:00-12:35 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Liuyan ZhaoUniversity of Michigan, US
Professor Liuyan ZhaoUniversity of Michigan, US |
| 12:35-12:45 |
Discussion
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Chair
Dr Elton Santos
University of Edinburgh, UK
Dr Elton Santos
University of Edinburgh, UK
| 13:45-14:20 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Joerg Wrachtrup, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Professor Joerg Wrachtrup, University of Stuttgart, Germany |
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| 14:20-14:30 |
Discussion
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| 14:30-15:00 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Toeno van der SaalDelft University of Technology, Netherlands
Professor Toeno van der SaalDelft University of Technology, Netherlands |
| 15:00-15:10 |
Discussion
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| 15:10-15:30 |
Break
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| 15:30-16:05 |
Talk title tbc
Dr Hannah SternOxford, UK
Dr Hannah SternOxford, UK |
| 16:05-16:15 |
Discussion
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| 16:15-16:50 |
Imaging the sub-moiré potential landscape using an Atomic Single Electron
Electrons in solids owe their properties to the periodic potential landscapes they experience. The advent of moiré lattices has revolutionized our ability to engineer such landscapes on nanometer scales, leading to numerous groundbreaking discoveries. Despite this progress, direct imaging of these electrostatic potential landscapes remains elusive. Here, we introduce the Atomic Single Electron Transistor (SET), a novel scanning probe that uses a single atomic defect in a van der Waals (vdW) material as an ultrasensitive, high-resolution potential sensor. Built upon the quantum twisting microscope (QTM) platform, this probe leverages the QTM’s capability to form a pristine, scannable 2D interface between vdW heterostructures. Using the Atomic SET, we present the first direct images of the electrostatic potential in a canonical moiré interface: graphene aligned to hexagonal boron nitride. This potential exhibits an approximate C_6 symmetry, minimal dependence on carrier density, and a substantial magnitude of ~60 mV even in the absence of carriers. Theory indicates that this symmetry arises from a delicate interplay of physical mechanisms with competing symmetries. Intriguingly, the measured magnitude significantly exceeds theoretical predictions, suggesting that current understanding may be incomplete. With 1 nm spatial resolution and sensitivity to potentials generated by only a few millionths of an electron’s charge, the Atomic SET enables ultrasensitive imaging of charge order and thermodynamic properties across a wide range of quantum phenomena, including symmetry-broken phases, quantum crystals, vortex charges, and fractionalized quasiparticles.
Dr Dahlia KleinUniversity of Chicago, US
Dr Dahlia KleinUniversity of Chicago, US Dahlia Klein is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, where her lab develops new forms of scanning probe microscopy to uncover correlated, magnetic, and topological phenomena in 2D quantum materials. She received her PhD in Physics from MIT under the supervision of Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, where she carried out several pioneering studies establishing the field of 2D magnetism. She then became a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the group of Shahal Ilani, leading the development of the Atomic SET, a new microscopy platform that embeds a single atomic defect as a quantum-dot sensor within a scannable van der Waals heterostructure with nanometer-scale resolution. |
| 16:50-17:00 |
Discussion
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Chair
Professor Cecilia Mattevi
Imperial College London, UK
Professor Cecilia Mattevi
Imperial College London, UK
| 08:20-08:55 |
Talk title tbc
Dr Amilcar Bedoya-PintoUniversity of Valencia, Spain
Dr Amilcar Bedoya-PintoUniversity of Valencia, Spain |
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| 08:55-09:10 |
Discussion
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| 09:45-09:55 |
Discussion
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| 09:55-10:30 |
Break
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| 10:30-11:05 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Jie ShanThe Max Planck Institute, Denmark
Professor Jie ShanThe Max Planck Institute, Denmark |
| 11:05-11:15 |
Discussion
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| 11:15-11:50 |
Electronic and magnetic structure in epitaxial van der Waals heterostructures
The transition-metal chalcogenides include some of the most important and ubiquitous families of 2D materials. Their van der Waals nature allows for the ready isolation of single layers, while they host an exceptional variety of electronic and magnetic states which can in principle be readily tuned by combining different 2D layers in van der Waals heterostructures [1]. Growth via molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) should be a premier route to achieve this, but efforts have been hampered by non-uniform layer coverage [2], unfavourable growth morphologies, the presence of significant rotational disorder, and limited growth windows and growth rates. I will discuss how a dramatic enhancement in quality of MBE-grown 2D materials can be achieved by simple substrate pre-treatments which dramatically enhance the epilayer nucleation, in turn facilitating a desired layer-by-layer growth mode [3,4]. I will show how this leads to an expanded growth window for metastable materials, allowing, for example the selective stabilisation of high-coverage CrTe2 and Cr2+εTe3 epitaxial monolayers [5]. This, in turn, opens the door to spectroscopic investigations of their magnetic and electronic structures [5,6], and enables their use to induce magnetism in neighbouring 2D layers via proximity coupling in van der Waals heterostructures [7]. [1] Chhowalla et al., Nat. Chem. 5 (2013) 263 [2] Rajan et al., Phys. Rev. Mater. 4 (2020) 014003 [3] Rajan et al., Adv. Mater. 36 (2024) 2402254 [4] Rajan et al., APL Mater. 13 (2025) 081123 [5] Kushwaha et al., npj Quantum Materials 10 (2025) 50 [6] Armitage et al., Phys. Rev. B in press (arXiv:2505.07942 (2025)) [7] Kushwaha, Rajan et al., in preparation
Professor Phil KingUniversity of St Andrews, UK
Professor Phil KingUniversity of St Andrews, UK |
| 11:50-12:00 |
Discussion
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| 12:00-12:35 |
Growing insights: the role of in situ diffraction in the formation of single-crystalline quantum materials
Understanding how quantum materials form at the atomic scale is essential for unlocking their extraordinary properties. Single-crystalline phases, especially rare-earth intermetallics, kagome lattices, and germanides, offer a rich platform for exploring strongly correlated electron systems, topological metals, and emergent magnetic phenomena. Achieving these crystals often relies on flux growth, a powerful technique that enables slow, controlled crystallization from a molten medium. Yet, the mechanisms governing nucleation, phase competition, and structural evolution during flux growth remain largely hidden. Our research employs in situ diffraction as a real-time probe to capture these dynamics, revealing how subtle van der Waals interactions and heterostructure subunits, distinct structural blocks that stack and interlink, guide the assembly of layered architectures. By visualizing growth pathways as they unfold, we identify critical conditions for stabilizing kagome frameworks and complex motifs that host exotic states such as Dirac fermions and unconventional magnetism. Combining predictive design with flux growth and real-time structural insight transforms synthesis into a science of controlled complexity. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how in situ diffraction enables rational strategies for growing rare-earth intermetallic kagome and germanide systems with unprecedented precision, paving the way for quantum functionalities once considered out of reach.
Professor Julia ChanBaylor University, US
Professor Julia ChanBaylor University, US |
| 12:35-12:45 |
Discussion
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Chair
Professor Irina Grigorieva
The University of Manchester, UK
Professor Irina Grigorieva
The University of Manchester, UK
| 13:45-14:20 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Yoshichika OtaniUniversity of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Yoshichika OtaniUniversity of Tokyo, Japan |
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| 14:20-14:30 |
Discussion
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| 14:30-15:00 |
Talk title tbc
Dr Zeila ZanolliUtrecht University, Netherlands
Dr Zeila ZanolliUtrecht University, Netherlands |
| 15:00-15:10 |
Discussion
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| 15:10-15:30 |
Break
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| 15:30-16:05 |
Talk title tbc
Dr Hyunsoo YangNational University of Singapore, Singapore
Dr Hyunsoo YangNational University of Singapore, Singapore |
| 16:05-16:15 |
Discussion
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| 16:15-16:50 |
Talk title tbc
Professor Rita DuGeorgia Institute of Technology, US
Professor Rita DuGeorgia Institute of Technology, US |
| 16:50-17:00 |
Discussion
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| 17:00-00:00 |
Close
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