Correlated quantum materials capable of combining competing interactions—such as magnetism, ferroelectricity, superconductivity, and metal-insulator transitions—offer exciting opportunities for energy and information technologies. A distinct class of such systems,
Correlated Electron Molecular Orbital (CEMO) materials, hosts local quantum states defined by molecular orbitals on transition-metal clusters, rather than individual atomic orbitals. This framework enables novel emergent phenomena tied to geometry and electron correlations.
Recent work on the 2D trimer material Nb3Br8 demonstrates the potential of this approach, showing coexisting magnetism and out-of-plane ferroelectricity, and enabling the first field-free Josephson diode. Though rich in functionality, CEMO materials remain underexplored. Their study opens new directions in the search for tunable quantum phases with technological relevance. In this talk, I will discuss recent work discussing how to systematically discover this class of materials, and the interrelationship between their electron and crystal structure properties.
