Jia-Xin Xiong

Research Interests:

• Symmetry breaking effects in quantum materials with their impact on metallic and insulating behaviors, especially involving transition-metal materials such as Mott insulators and charge-transfer compounds.
• Spintronics in nonmagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials, including spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and non-relativistic spin splitting (NRSS).
• Hidden spin effects such as hidden Rashba/Dresselhaus SOC-induced spin polarization and non-relativistic spin polarization (NRSP).
• First-principles electronic structure calculations for bulk and quantum structures, including density functional theory (DFT) and semi-empirical pseudopotential method (SEPM).
• Stability and electronic properties of halide perovskites, including pure compounds and their constructed alloys.

Dr. Jia-Xin Xiong's research centers on the quantum-mechanical origin of emergent electronic and magnetic properties in crystalline solids. His work combines first-principles density-functional theory with advanced (magnetic) symmetry analysis to uncover how subtle symmetry breaking (including positional, magnetic, and dipolar motifs) governs the metal vs insulator behaviors, the splitting of spin-polarized energy bands in quantum materials, etc. He has published extensively in Physical Review X, Physical Review B, npj Computational Materials, Materials Horizons, and Science China Physics Mechanics & Astronomy, contributing to topics such as non-relativistic spin splitting in symmetry-broken collinear antiferromagnets, hidden spin effects in antiferromagnetic compounds, symmetry-breaking driven insulation in quantum oxides, predictive design of target halide perovskite alloys, and emerging linear Rashba effect in two-dimensional hole gases of Ge quantum wells. Through these studies, Dr. Xiong advances a unified first-principles framework that links crystallographic symmetry, magnetism, and spin polarization to the emergent properties of real materials.

Selected publications:

[1] Xiuwen Zhang*, Jia-Xin Xiong*, Lin-Ding Yuan, and Alex Zunger, Prototypes of non-relativistic spin splitting and polarization in symmetry broken antiferromagnets, Phys. Rev. X 15, 031076 (2025).

[2] Jia-Xin Xiong, Xiuwen Zhang, and Alex Zunger, Role of magnetic and structural symmetry breaking in forming the Mott insulating gap in Nb₃Cl₈, Phys. Rev. B 111, 155122 (2025).

[3] Jia-Xin Xiong, Xiuwen Zhang, and Alex Zunger, Symmetry breaking forms split-off flat bands in quantum oxides controlling metal versus insulator phases, Phys. Rev. B 111, 035154 (2025).

[4] Edison P. Carlisle, George Yumnam, Stuart Calder, Bianca Haberl, Jia-Xin Xiong*, Michael A. McGuire, Alex Zunger, Raphaël  P. Hermann, and Benjamin A. Frandsen*, Tuning the magnetic properties of the spin-split antiferromagnet MnTe through pressure, Phys. Rev. B 112, 014450 (2025) [Editors' Suggestion].

[5] Fernando P. Sabino, Jia-Xin Xiong, Xiuwen Zhang, Gustavo M. Dalpian, and Alex Zugner, Alloying multiple halide perovskites on the same sublattice in search of stability and target band gaps, Mater. Horiz. 12, 7389 (2025).

[6] Xiuwen Zhang, Jia-Xin Xiong, and Alex Zunger, Hidden magnetism and split off flat bands in the insulator metal transition in VO₂, npj Comput. Mater. 10, 217 (2024).

[7] Jia-Xin Xiong, Shan Guan, Jun-Wei Luo, and Shu-Shen Li, Emergence of strong tunable linear Rashba spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional hole gases in semiconductor quantum wells, Phys. Rev. B 103, 085309 (2021).

[8] Jia-Xin Xiong, Shan Guan, Jun-Wei Luo, and Shu-Shen Li, Orientation-dependent Rashba spin-orbit coupling of two-dimensional hole gases in semiconductor quantum wells: Linear or cubic, Phys. Rev. B 105, 115303 (2022).

[9] Jia-Xin Xiong, Yang Liu, Shan Guan, Jun-Wei Luo, and Shu-Shen Li, Why experiments fail to detect the finite linear Rashba spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional holes in semiconductor quantum wells: The case of Ge/SiGe quantum wells, Phys. Rev. B 106, 155421 (2022).

[10] Yang Liu, Jia-Xin Xiong, Zhi Wang, Wen-Long Ma, Shan Guan, Jun-Wei Luo, and Shu-Shen Li, Emergent linear Rashba spin-orbit coupling offers fast manipulation of hole-spin qubits in germanium, Phys. Rev. B 105, 075313 (2022).