Aidan Delgado

Aidan Delgado is a 5th year Ph.D. student in the Fischer group, where he specialized on the applications of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) for electronic and structural characterization of carbon-based nanostructures. Prior to his time at Berkeley, Aidan received his B.A. in Chemistry from Lawrence University, where he worked with Dr. Graham Sazama synthesizing conductive one-dimensional MOFs.

Aidan’s research is at the interface of materials science, condensed matter physics and chemistry. His research aims at developing a fundamental understanding of the structural and electronic properties of carbon-based nanomaterials. To do so, he utilizes state-of-the-art SPM methods (UHV temperature-controlled STM/STS/nc-AFM), allowing him to achieve atomic resolution and explore novel electronic states. Currently, his interests lie in the deterministic control of quantum electronic states in strongly correlated low-dimensional materials, which has led him to explore novel non-Hermitian systems. These, are intrinsically in a non-equilibrium state and are predicted to exhibit an anisotropic transport of charge carriers. Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), quasi-1D strips of graphene, are a promising platform for the creation of these non-Hermitian systems. Their bottom-up fabrication offers a large degree of tunability in their electronic structure, generating strongly correlated phases into otherwise ordinary materials. 

To achieve this non-Hermiticity, Aidan will make use of symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase engineering, and proper design and solution-based synthesis of polymer precursors to yield a GNR that exhibits this non-Hermitian behavior. The realization of such a system would not only represent a critical contribution to our theoretical understanding of complex eigenvalues in topological phases of matter, but could also be the first in a series of radically new quantum materials. This will require the close collaboration and expertise of the Louie group, who have pioneered the field of topological phases in condensed matter systems, as well as the Fischer group’s expertise in atomically precise nanomaterial fabrication and SPM characterization.