Research Interests
Our primary interest is in the physics of strongly-correlated electron systems, a broad-brush term to describe materials from iron-and copper based superconductors, to so-called "heavy" fermion systems to 4d and 5d transition metal oxides. These materials are characterized by electron-electron interactions so strong as to invalidate a picture wherein constituent quasiparticles can be considered non-interacting entities within a mean field of their cohorts. They are the primary hosts of emergent phenomena - the collective behavior of the many constituent charges and spins conspire to create a macroscopic quantum ground state. Our goal is to understand, at a microscopic level, how emergent behavior arises using the cutting-edge tools of modern nonlinear and ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Currently, we are researching the interactions between proximate ordered phases in iron-pnictide and filled-skutterudite superconductors as well as studying exotic electronic order in iron-chalcogenides and filled-skutterudites. We are also developing novel spectroscopic tools to better understand the physics of these systems.
Key Publications
L. Zhao, D. H. Torchinsky, et al. Evidence of an odd-parity hidden order in a strongly spin-orbit coupled correlated iridate, Nature Physics 12, 32–36 (2016).
D. H. Torchinsky, et al. Structural Distortion-Induced Magnetoelastic Locking in Sr2IrO4 Revealed through Nonlinear Optical Harmonic Generation, Physical Review Letters, 114, 096404 (2015).
D. H. Torchinsky, et al. A Low Temperature Nonlinear Optical Rotational Anisotropy Spectrometer for the Determination of Crystallographic and Electronic Symmetries, Review of Scientific Instruments, 85, 083102 (2014).
D. H. Torchinsky, et al. Fluctuating charge density waves in a cuprate superconductor, Nature Materials, 12, 387-391 (2013).
D. H. Torchinsky, et al. Band-dependent quasiparticle dynamics in single crystals of the Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2 superconductor revealed by pump-probe spectroscopy, Physical Review Letters, 105, 027005 (2010).