Imai Lab Homepage

Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Canada

We are an experimental research group specialized in quantum condensed matter physics, in particular quantum spin liquids, quantum criticality, strongly correlated electrons, and exotic superconductivity.  We use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy conducted at cryogenic temperatures as our primary experimental probe. 

"Resonators go to the movie":
A movie compilation of the temperature evolution of the local Cu electron spin-1/2 environment probed by two-dimensional ¹⁹F NMR data observed for the proximate kagome quantum spin liquid material "Zn-barlowite", (Zn_0.95Cu_0.05)Cu₃(OD)₆FBr.  The split-off peak arises from spin polarized domain induced in the vicinity of ~5% Cu²⁺ defect spins occupying the non-magnetic Zn²⁺ sites [published in npj Quantum Materials 7, 120 (2022)].  This is the fruit of our innovative NMR research spearheaded by Ph.D. students Jerry Wang and Weishi Yuan.

Jobs (Updated August 2022) We expect 1 ~ 2 opening(s) of  Ph.D. and/or M.Sc. research assistantship(s) for September 2023 with full financial support.  The recruitment will continue until the position(s) is(are) filled.

Examples of recent research topics involving graduate students:

"Freezing of the lattice in the kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet Zn-barlowite ZnCu₃(OD)₆FBr," by Ph.D. students Jerry Wang, Weishi Yuan et al. published in Physical Review Letters (2022). 

"Emergence of spin singlets with inhomogeneous gaps in the kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnets Zn-barlowite and herbertsmothite," by Ph.D. students Jerry Wang, Weishi Yuan et al. published in Nature Physics (2021). 

"Magnetic inhomogeneity in charge-ordered La_1.885Sr_0.115CuO₄ studied by NMR," by M.Sc. student Alex Arsenault et al., published in Physical Review B (2020).

"Spin excitations of a proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid realized in Cu₂IrO₃," by Ph.D. student Sean Takahashi et al., published in Phys. Rev. X (2019).

"NMR investigation of the quasi-one-dimensional superconductor K₂Cr₃As₃," by M.Sc. student Haizhao Zhi et al., published in Physical Review Letters (2015).

"Evidence for a gapped spin-liquid ground state in a Kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet," by Ph.D. student Ming Fu et al., published in Science (2015).

See "Research" and "Publications" sections for details.