The Hallas Group at UBC
Crystal growth and scattering of quantum materials
The Hallas Group at UBC
Crystal growth and scattering of quantum materials
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Crystal growth and scattering of quantum materials
Welcome!
Welcome!
Anyone who has visited a museum with an exhibit on minerals knows that nature can produce beautiful crystals. However, the crystals found in nature represent only a tiny fraction of what is possible using all the ingredients on the periodic table. Furthermore, the conditions in nature are far from pristine and these naturally occurring crystals, though beautiful, often have high levels of disorder or impurities at the atomic level. In the Hallas Lab, part of the Blusson Quantum Matter Institute at the University of British Columbia, we design and grow crystals of materials that are not found in nature. In particular, the Hallas Group seeks out materials with strong quantum mechanical effects, giving rise to exotic magnetic and electronic properties. We aim to understand the behaviors of these quantum materials by studying their properties with neutrons, muons, and x-rays.
Recent News
Recent News
January 2026: Congrats to Samikshya Sahu for successfully defending her PhD thesis! We are so proud of you!
Earlier in the month, Alannah, Andree, and Will journeyed to Maryland to attend the Fundamentals of Quantum Materials Winter School.
November 2025: Congrats to Samikshya Sahu and Ksenia Khoroshun, who both published their first first-author papers this month! Samikshya's work helps us understand why defects are so rare in PtSn4, while Ksenia demonstrated the many ways a high entropy synthesis can turn out.
This month, Abraham and Alannah travelled to Switzerland to attend the CIFAR Quantum Materials Fall Meeting. Later in the month, Alannah and Dongjoon visited Tsukuba, Japan for the Material Aspects of Novel Quantum Systems Workshop.
October 2025: Welcome to Dr. Christopher Woodgate, who joined us from the University of Bristol for a 6-week stay thanks to funding from ICAM. Chris is a computational materials scientist and will be studying the effect of disorder on magnetism in high entropy oxides.
September 2025: It's back-to-school season and the group is excited to welcome new Chemistry PhD student Karl Tsang and Physics MSc student Lex Rouquette. We're equally excited that recent MSc grad Abraham Mancilla is sticking around for a PhD 🥳
August 2025: This month, Ashutosh travelled to Ames, Iowa to give a talk at the NASSCC and Alannah gave a talk at an ICTP Workshop in Trieste, Italy.
May 2025: We are excited to officially welcome friend-of-the-lab Michelle Huang for summer undergraduate research! This month, Austin and Alannah attended the Highly Frustrated Magnetism Conference in Toronto.
April 2025: In the latest issue of Nature Physics, Alannah delves into the underrepresentation of women last authors and what we can do about it.
March 2025: Samikshya, Mario, Joern, Mohamed, and Dongjoon made the journey to sunny Anaheim to attend the APS Global Physics Summit.
February 2025: Alannah had a lot of fun delivering a keynote talk on the crystal growth of quantum materials on at Quantum Days in Toronto.
January 2025: A warm welcome to new PhD student Andree Coschizza, who will be working jointly with the Hallas and Ye labs.
Congrats to Valentina Mazzotti on publishing her Honour's thesis research. Check out her paper to learn why breathing pyrochlore distortions are so rare.
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