This award supports Dr. Gergely Zimanyi and a graduate student from the University of California-Davis in a collaboration with Gerd Sch`n of the Department of Solid State Physics at the University of Karlsruhe. The collaboration will study three topics: 1) electron tunneling through junctions and quantum dots with high tunneling conductance, 2) quantum phase slips and transport in ultra-thin superconducting wires, and 3) collective properties of arrays of Josephson junctions and granular materials. Each group brings separate and complementary expertise in the topics to be studied, and exchange of students is a high priority during the two-year award period. All three topics are of great interest to both the theoretical and experimental physics communities, and may have implications for future technological advances in high-speed electronic devices.
