Friday, November 07, 2025 - 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
DeMeritt Hall - Rm. 240
Title: Imaging Quantum Scars in Electronic Graphene Billiards
Presenter: Jairo Velasco Jr. – Associate Professor of Physics - University of California Santa Cruz
Host: Shawna Hollen, Associate Professor – Physics & Astronomy Dept. - UNH
Abstract:
The harnessing and manipulation of electronic states in quantum materials has the potential to revolutionize computation, sensing, storage, and communications, thus impacting multiple facets of our everyday lives. In this talk I will discuss my group’s recent experiments with graphene, a highly versatile carbon-based quantum material that hosts ultra-relativistic charges. Specifically, I will focus on an experiment that utilizes confinement, nanoscale visualization, and spectroscopy to reveal new properties of the ultra-relativistic states hosted by stadium shaped graphene-based billiards. This structure enables the first imaging of the highly elusive quantum scar states, which provide a bridge between chaotic systems in classical and quantum mechanics. Notably, chaotic systems are sensitive to perturbations and could lead to remarkable devices if they can be harnessed. Therefore, the study of quantum scar states provides a pathway towards the development of novel quantum devices.
Biosketch:
Jairo Velasco Jr. is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of California Santa Cruz. His research interests include the study of electronic properties and structure of two-dimensional materials. He received his PhD in physics from the University of California Riverside in 2012 with Jeanie Lau. He was then a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Mike Crommie’s group at the University of California Berkeley from 2012-2015. Dr. Velasco is a recipient of the NSF early CAREER award (2018) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator Award (2022).
Research group website:
