A team of researchers out of Tulane University in New Orleans has recently discovered new magnetic topological semimetal that eventually lead to more energy-efficient electronics including computers and cellphones.
Physics professor Zhiqiang Mao led the research team. Mao focuses on quantum materials and he was named the Tulane School of Science and Engineering’s Outstanding Researcher for 2017.
“The recent discoveries of topological materials – a new class of quantum materials – hold great promise for use in energy-saving electronics,” said Mao. “The result is expected to improve fundamental understanding of fascinating properties of topological semimetals.”
The discovery was accepted into Nature Materials journal in June 2017 and published the following month.
Tulane shared that the other scientists on the team include research assistant professor Jin Hu, assistant professor Jiang Wei, graduate students Jinyu Liu, Yanglin Zhu and visiting scholar Goufeng Cheng.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Louisiana Board of Regents and the U.S. Department of Energy, and others, the study also included collaborators from labs and universities such as Louisiana State University, Oak Ridge National Lab, National High Magnetic Field Lab at Tallahassee and Los Alamos, Florida State University, and University of New Orleans.