Academic Partners

Canadian Light Source

The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is Canada’s national centre for synchrotron research. Officially opened in 2004, researchers use the light source facility to collect information about materials at the molecular level – to probe the matter and analyze physical, chemical, geological and biological processes.

The CLS mandate is to grow the synchrotron research community within Canada while being responsive to its needs. To ensure excellence and novelty in the research conducted at CLS, access to the beamlines is determined through a peer-review process. Our faculty enjoys priority access at the CLS. In fact, we have developed, and operate, two beamlines at the CLS.

Andrea Damascelli is currently leading the effort to build the Quantum Material Spectroscopy Centre (QMSC) at the CLS. The $16 million national effort, funded in part by the Canada Foundation for Innovation New Initiatives Fund, will be a state-of-the-art beamline facility dedicated to performing spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to provide a complete high-resolution snapshot of the low-energy electronic and magnetic structure of materials.

Also funded in part by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, George Sawatzky led the effort to build the Resonant Elastic and Inelastic Soft X-Ray Scattering (REIXS) beamline at the CLS. Commissioned in 2012 and now fully operational, this advanced system reveals the electronic and magnetic structure with nanometer resolution at or below the surface of a sample with unrivalled sensitivity suitable for complex transition-metal oxide crystals, interfaces and heterostructures.

Our work with, and at, CLS plays an important role in many of our discoveries and research achievements.

For more information, please visit the Canadian Light Source.

Max Planck-UBC-UTokyo Centre for Quantum Materials

In the spring of 2017, the University of Tokyo formally joined the University of British Columbia and the Max Planck Society of Germany in an international partnership designed to advance quantum materials research and innovation. The University of Tokyo brings recognized expertise in synthesizing and characterizing quantum materials. The new partnership created the Max Planck-UBC-UTokyo Centre for Quantum Materials (CQM), which is an expansion of the original Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials, which was established in 2010.

CQM combines internationally recognized scientists with extensive infrastructure for research in quantum materials. The partnership supports collaborative projects, scholarly exchanges, annual workshops, joint schools for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation.

The Centre is led by three co-directors:

• Bernhard Keimer – Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany
• Andrea Damascelli – Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia, Canada
• Ryo Shimano – University of Tokyo, Japan

We collaborate on a variety of projects focused in the areas of:

• Metal-oxide interfaces and heterostructures
• High-temperature superconductivity
• Correlated-electron materials with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Spin liquids
• Topological phenomena in solids
• Electronic properties of graphene-adatom systems
• Spintronic materials and devices
• Dynamical control of electron systems
• We actively recruit Postdoctoral Research Fellows for CQM twice a year (in April and October).

For current opportunities, please visit our Careers page.

Pictured, right to left: Dr. Makoto Gonokami, 30th president of the University of Tokyo; Prof. Dr. Martin Stratmann, President of the Max Planck Society; and Prof. Santa Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of British Columbia.

TRIUMF

TRIUMF is Canada’s national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics research and one of the world’s leading subatomic physics research laboratories. It is also home to the Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC).

As an institution, TRIUMF shares the cooperative spirit we embrace, and our faculty has close collaborative ties with the team at TRIUMF.

SBQMI members Andrew MacFarlane and Rob Kiefl have led the development of the beta detected nuclear magnetic resonance (β-NMR) facility at TRIUMF along with Professor Chow from the University of Alberta and TRIUMF’s own Dr. Kreitzman.

β-NMR is an exotic form of NMR in which the nuclear spin precession signal is detected through the beta decay of a radioactive nucleus. It takes advantage of the new world-class radioactive ion beam facility.

The successful development of this β-NMR facility is a recent example of the success of our ongoing collaboration with TRIUMF and represents only one of the many cooperative opportunities between our institutions.