Winner Citation

Assistant Professor Andrivo Rusydi
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore

“For his research on strongly correlated electron systems and the development of synchrotron-based experimental techniques”

Dr Rusydi’s research interests lie in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of exotic quantum phenomena in strongly correlated electron systems, such as high temperature superconductors, colossal magneto resistance, multiferroic and (oxide-) dilute magnetic semiconductors. To reveal the interplay of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom – believed to be responsible for driven mechanisms – he co-invented a synchrotron-based experimental technique called resonant soft x-ray scattering (RSXS), which is extremely sensitive to nanoscale spin, charge, and orbital inhomogeneities. Using RSXS, he and his research group have observed many exotic hidden quantum phenomena such as: stripe phase of charge, hole Wigner crystal, paired holon state, unconventional 4kF-charge density wave, orbital orderings and magnetic ordering in various correlated electron systems. These striking observations have given him and his group new insights in the field, as well as opening up new areas of research. In fact, the RSXS is now being adopted by many researchers at leading synchrotrons worldwide. Furthermore, to understand the complex nature of electronic band structure of strongly correlated electron systems, he and his collaborator very recently developed an ultraviolet-vacuum ultraviolet (UV-VUV) optical ellipsometry, which is also a synchrotron-based experimental technique. Using UV-VUV optical ellipsometry, he and his group have observed, for the first time, anomalous spectral weight transfer over a broad energy range (up to 22 eV) in manganites. The spectral weight transfer is an important signature of strongly correlated electron systems.

The results have been published in top journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Physics, and Physical Review Letters.