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Exotic New States in Superconducting Devices: The Age of the Interface

Superconducting material such as a ferromagnet, a topological insulator or a semiconductor, a range of electronic states can be induced which are radically different from either constituent material. To be able to probe these states requires a broad range of expertise, spanning basic materials science to fundamental physics modeling of interfaces and transport behaviour. At this meeting we have the opportunity to bring together scientists working on distinct and overlapping areas, such as superconductivity, magnetism, topological materials, quantum computing, and spin-electronics. This science community will have an opportunity to appreciate how these different transport phenomena are linked conceptually and thereby stimulate further understanding particularly with respect to realising useful devices with unique properties for spin-electronics and quantum computing.

Insulator spintronics – strong-coupling, coherence and entanglement

Magnetic insulators are extremely versatile materials. They’re used for fundamental research into magnetism and in real world devices. They have become a vital tool across many research disciplines to the extent that they are now micro-scale laboratories in their own right. The lack of charge currents in these materials allows for a very controlled environment where pure spin currents can flow and single magnons can be excited. However, nature is not so kind and the majority of magnetic insulators are a complex class of materials with many complications which must be understood.

This SPICE Young Research Leaders Workshop aims to bring together young scientific leaders who are interested in how magnetic insulators can be used to push the frontier of our understanding of basic science as well as technological frontiers such as spintronics and quantum computing. Specifically, this workshop will bring together researchers from the fields of insulator spintronics, magnon-polaritons and quantum magnetism to exchange ideas and discuss new ways in which magnetic insulators can be applied to fundamental research and applications.

In recent years the concepts of topology have entered strikingly all areas of physics, interlinking many previously unrelated areas of research. New topological materials and topological phases with exotic properties have been discovered at a rapid pace. However, these new phases are still being studied primarily within their own sub-disciplines of condensed matter, with not enough interaction among them to explore new emerging paths to hybrid and multifunctional advanced materials.

The workshop "Topology Matters" aims to bring together the top scientists in the fields of spintronics, superconductivity, topological insulators, and multiferroics in order to explore their connections via topology. The rapid developments in each of these fields, and the emerging importance of topology in all of them makes this workshop very timely.

Modern scientific research in condensed matter physics has been marked by a newly perceived role of the quantum nature of a spin in the most basic properties of materials. This breakthrough reflected itself in a new comprehension of fundamental physical symmetries, the concept of the topological classification of the quantum states properties, some of which are close to practical applications.

The aim of the SPICE workshop “Spin Dynamics in Dirac System” is to offer a platform for the knowledge exchange between diverse novel condensed matter domains such as topological insulators and superconductors, Weyl physics, topological Josephson junctions, spintronics in graphene, spin valves, spin-logic devices, quantum magnetism, spin lattices, frustrated magnets, spin liquids, non-trivial spin states, etc.

In contrast to equilibrium quantum systems, which exist in just a tiny corner of an immense configuration space, non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems can access the totality of configuration space and represent a rich resource for novel quantum states, including light-induced quantum-coherent phases of matter, topological phases and spin textures in solids and cold atom systems. Non-equilibrium many-body quantum dynamics is perhaps the last frontier in physics, where even the basic understanding is still lacking and a number of outstanding fundamental questions are wide open. However, there has been much recent progress in exploring these fundamental aspects on both theoretical and experimental sides.