New Faculty 2020-2021

July 22, 2019

Eduardo Da Silva Neto, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Physics

Biographical Sketch

Eduardo H. da Silva Neto was born in Recife, Brazil in 1985. He obtained his B.A. in Physics and Mathematics (2008) from Amherst College, and his M.S. (2010) and Ph. D. (2013) in Physics from Princeton University, where he worked in the group of Ali Yazdani investigating broken symmetry states in unconventional superconductors with scanning tunneling spectroscopy. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Quantum Matter Institute, during which time he was a Max Planck-UBC postdoctoral fellow and a Global Scholar for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. During that period he worked in the groups of Andrea Damascelli (UBC) and Bernhard Keimer (Max Planck Institute - Stuttgart) studying high-temperature superconductors with resonant x-ray scattering and angle-resolved photoemission techniques. He is moving to Yale from UC Davis, where he has held an assistant professor position in Physics since 2016.

Research Program

I conduct experimental studies of quantum materials with advanced spectroscopic techniques targeting the discovery and investigation of emergent electronic quantum states of matter, such as pair-density-waves, nematic order, topological superconductivity and novel Majorana modes. Quantum materials (e.g. graphene, topological insulators, quantum spin liquids, and superconductors) are solid-state systems that feature poorly understood exotic electronic quantum phases of matter. Although all materials require quantum mechanics to explain their properties, quantum materials develop actually tangible emergent quantum effects. These exciting effects include the realization of exotic emergent topological particles (Weyl and Majorana states) and unconventional superconductivity intertwined with charge and spin order, which may provide new avenues for next-generation quantum computation and energy efficient materials. My research currently focuses on the study of topological materials and unconventional superconductors. To study the basic quantum mechanics of these materials my group uses a suite of techniques. First, at Yale, we will employ low-temperature (sub 1K) and high magnetic field (11T) scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/S) to visualize the quantum wave functions of electrons at the atomic scale. Second, to complement the STM/S real-space studies at Yale, we will measure the electronic states in reciprocal space at synchrotron facilities around the globe, primarily using resonant soft x-ray scattering (RXS) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments. Current projects include the study of pair-density waves in heavy-fermion superconductors, the investigation of superconductivity and Fe-based high-temperature superconductors and their relationship to rotational symmetry breaking, and the search for new topological superconductors.

For more information please see: https://dasilvaneto.faculty.ucdavis.edu/