Despina Louca

Professor Louca studies phase transitions in condensed matter systems. Louca is interested in understanding how the underlying interactions involving the spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom lead to emergent behaviors and properties such as polaron formation, Jahn-Teller type distortions, spin and charge density waves, superconductivity and quantum spin liquid states. The most recent systems of interest include topological insulators and semimetals, spintronic antiferromagnets of the I-Mn-V class, transition metal dichalcogenides, disorder superconductors, layered semiconductors, charge density wave dichalcogenides etc. These systems have underlying macroscopic functionalities that can potentially lead to industrial applications. The bulk of this research is performed at national and international neutron and X-ray facilities. The Louca group is also involved inmaterials synthesis and characterization of bulk properties, performed at the University of Virginia.

1.  “Gapless Dirac magnons in CrCl₃”, John A. Schneeloch, Yu Tao, Yongqiang Cheng, Luke Daemen, Guangyong Xu, Qiang Zhang, and Despina Louca, NPJ Quantum Materials 7, 66 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-022-00473-3.
2. “Lattice and magnetic dynamics in YVO₃ Mott insulator studied by neutron scattering and first-principles calculations”, Yu Tao, Douglas L. Abernathy, Tianran Chen, Taner Yildirim, Jiaqiang Yan, Jianshi Zhou, John B. Goodenough, and Despina Louca, Phys. Rev. B 105, 094412 (2022).
3. “Large change of interlayer vibrational coupling with stacking in Mo_1-xW_xTe₂”, J. A. Schneeloch, Y. Tao, J. A. Fernandez-Baca, G. Xu and D. Louca, Phys. Rev. B 105, 014102 (2022).
4. “Charge-ordered state satisfying the Anderson condition in LiRh2O4 arising from local dimer order” M. Shiomi, K. Kojima, N. Katayama, S. Maeda, J. A. Schneeloch, S. Yamamoto, K. Sugimoto, Y. Ohta, D. Louca, Y. Okamoto, and H. Sawa, Phys. Rev. B 105, L041103 (2022).
5. “Bismuth kagome sublattice distortions by quenching and flux pinning in superconducting RbBi₂”, Sharon S. Philip, Junjie Yang, Despina Louca, P. F. S. Rosa, J. D. Thompson, and K. L. Page, Phys. Rev. B 104, 104503 (2021).
6. "Metal-insulator transition and doping-induced phase change in Ge₂Sb₂Se_5xTe_5-5x", Z. Xu, K. Park, J. A. Schneeloch, and D. Louca, Applied Physics Letters 117, 193503 (2020).
7. “Evidence for pseudo–Jahn-Teller distortions in the charge density wave phase of 1T-TiSe₂”, A. Wegner, J. Zhao, J. Li, J. Yang, A. A. Anikin, G. Karapetrov, K. Esfarjani, D. Louca, U. Chatterjee”, Phys. Rev. B 101, 195145 (2020).
8. "Charge Density Modulation and Defect Ordering in NaMnBi magnetic semimetal", A. Wegner, D. Louca, K. Taddei, J. Neuefeind, D. Louca, Phys. Rev. B 102, 020403(R) (2020).
9. "T_d to 1T′ structural phase transition in WTe₂ Weyl semimetal", Y. Tao, J. A. Schneeloch, A. A. Aczel, and D. Louca, Phys. Rev. B 102, 060103(R) (2020).
10. "Evolution of the structural transition in Mo_1−xW_xTe₂", J. A. Schneeloch, Y. Tao, C. Duan, M. Matsuda, A. A. Aczel, J. A. Fernandez-Baca, G. Xu, J. C. Neuefeind, J. Yang and D. Louca, Phys. Rev. B 102, 054105, (2020).
11. “Nanoscale Atomic Distortions in the BiS2 Superconductors: Ferrodistortive Sulfur Modes”, A. Athauda and D. Louca, J. Phys. Soc. JPN 88, 041004 (2019).