Synthesis of bulk topological materials*

For me, fields are best to work in when new theory, experimental characterization and materials discovery happen simultaneously. That was the case in topological materials research, and its fair to assume that this coupling will happen in several unimaginable or barely imaginable areas of science during your research lifetime. (So “be true to yourself, and never give up” is still the best advice that survivors can give to young scientists in my opinion.) Current efforts in topological materials largely appear to center on the elucidation of what from my perspective appear to be complex issues in new physics, and thus are more difficult for materials chemists to find things to do that are both chemically and physically interesting.  Although materials chemists can make thin layers of previously known materials specifically for physicists to study, “where is the chemistry in that” can sometimes be heard sotto voce in the chemistry community about that kind of work. Those things being said, the collaboration between theoretical and experimental physicists, crystal growers and materials chemists to invent, grow, and experimentally explore he properties of materials that have the potential to display new physics has proven to be very productive, and should best continue. Aside from my personal views of research at the chemistry/physics interface, my idea for this talk is to show how chemical and materials science views of materials discovery and optimization can be applied to materials hosting topological electronic states. Since some of you have not yet taken your personal shot at some of the materials of interest for the development of topological physics, there may be materials of interest to your work presented here.