Sau Research Group

Group Lead

Associate Professor, JQI Co-Director

Electrons Take New Shape Inside Unconventional Metal
January 9, 2023
One of the biggest achievements of quantum physics was recasting our vision of the atom. Out was the early 1900s model of a solar system in miniature. Instead, quantum physics showed that electrons meander around the nucleus in clouds that look like tiny balloons. These balloons are known as atomic orbitals, and they come in all sorts of different shapes—perfectly round, two-lobed, clover-leaf-shaped. That’s all well and good for individual atoms, but when atoms come together to form something solid—like a chunk of metal, say—the outermost electrons in the atoms link arms and lose sight of the nucleus they came from, forming many oversized balloons that span the whole chunk of metal. Now, researchers have produced the first experimental evidence that one metal—and likely others in its class—have electrons that manage to preserve a more interesting, multi-lobed structure as they move around in a solid.
Sau Named UMD Co-Director of JQI
January 14, 2022
JQI Fellow Jay Sau has been appointed the newest UMD Co-Director of JQI. He assumed the role on January 1, 2022.
Donuts, Donut Holes and Topological Superconductors
April 9, 2020
In this episode of Relatively Certain, Dina Genkina sits down with JQI Fellow Jay Sau, an associate professor of physics at UMD, and Johnpierre Paglione, a professor of physics at UMD and the director of the Quantum Materials Center.