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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. 


                                                                                                             kagome_spin_liquid

(Image of kagome spin liquid, adopted from our Physics Today article)


"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", (Zn0.95Cu0.05)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.

                                                                                                             Zn095 movie


No Jobs (Updated July 2025) We have no job openings for 2025-2026, unless you can bring your own full financial support. 


Examples of recent research topics involving graduate students:

"Emergence of the spin polarized domains in the kagome lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet Zn-barlowite (Zn0.95Cu0.05)Cu3(OD)6FBr," by Ph.D. students Weishi Yuan and Jerry Wang, et al. published in npj Quantum Materials (2022). 

"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 La1.885Sr0.115CuO4 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.