Topologically nontrivial systems are electronic materials that have protected conducting states on their edge or surface. These widely studied materials are of great interest due to their exotic physical properties and ...

This dissertation examines the electronic properties of topological materials in their thin film forms, including a prototypical topological insulator (TI), Bi2Te3, and a newly discovered topological Dirac semimetal (TDS), ...

In both crystalline and amorphous solids, plastic deformation consists of intermittent jumps called avalanches, whose sizes are power-law-distributed over a scaling regime. In this thesis, we study the statistics of a ...

The character of electronic states near the Mott-Anderson metal-insulator transition in the ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga1-xMnxAs is studied by cross sectional scanning tunneling microscopy. 200nm thick samples grown by ...

We study a topological classification of insulators and superconductors in the presence of non-spatial discrete symmetries in the Altland-Zirnbauer classification and spatial symmetries in any spatial dimension. We provide ...

We study the optical properties of luminescent silicon nanoparticles in the presence of magnetic ions of iron or erbium in solution and electric biasing. Upon the introduction of the ions under zero biasing, the ...

We report evidence for a complex low-temperature superconducting phase in UPt3 that breaks time-reversal symmetry and exhibits a phase shift of Pi in the superconducting order parameter between the a- and b-axes. We also ...

Photonic crystal (PC) surfaces have been demonstrated to be a compelling platform for improving the sensitivity of surface-based fluorescent assays used in disease diagnostics and life science research. PCs can be engineered ...

In this dissertation, inelastic light (Raman) scattering techniques are used to probe the novel phases and properties of the orbital ordering material KCuF3 and the single molecule magnet Mn12-acetate as functions of ...