Materials Science and Engineering

Title: “Kagome Metals and Their Unusual Electronic Properties”

In this talk, I will discuss new inroads in the study of electronic order within classes of metals built from kagome lattices or networks of corner sharing triangles.  The electronic band structures of these compounds are known to host a series of features such as Dirac crossings, saddle points, and flat bands at select carrier fillings.  Tuning the electron filing about these features has the potential to stabilize a variety of exotic electronic states such as orbital magnetism, bond density wave order, and unconventional superconductivity; however experimental realization of these states has been a historical challenge.  Recently, a number of new compounds built from kagome lattices with band fillings near each of these features have been discovered, and I will provide an overview of progress in studying their anomalous properties.  Particular focus will be given to electronic instabilities realized in kagome metals with their Fermi levels close to the saddle points in their band structures.