This individual investigator award supports a project whose main thrust is an experimental study of correlated electron systems and conducting polymers, mostly using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR is a powerful tool to measure the static and dynamic properties of the magnetic field and charge configurations of a density wave, single electrons, band electrons, local electronic moments, or the vortex lattice in a superconductor. Topics to be studied include: (1) properties of the order parameters in the charge density wave system Rb(0.30)MoO(3); (2) unusual properties of the electron-doped cuprate superconductor Pr(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-y); (3) magnetic and electronic properties of the organic conductor lambda-(BETS)(2)FeCl(4), which has a paramagnetic metal phase, an antiferromagnetic insulating phase, and a field-induced superconducting phase; and (4) electron transport and dynamics in conducting polymers. These investigations will characterize the unusual properties of these systems, help to understand the way in which interactions determine these properties, and provide basic information that may be used in their technical applications. Important components of the work are the education of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, and the development of advanced instrumentation and experimental techniques used for this work and made available to the broader scientific community.
This individual investigator award supports a project whose primary thrust is an experimental study of materials in which interactions among many electrons lead to unusual physical properties. The main experimental tool to be used is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which has proven to be very informative in such investigations. Systems to be studied include a high temperature superconductor, a two-dimensional organic conductor with very unusual properties, including a superconducting phase that is turned on by a very high magnetic field, and electrically conducting polymers that cover a wide range of conductivity from nearly insulating to metallic behavior. The value of these investigations is that they will characterize the unusual properties of these systems, help to understand the way in which interactions among electrons determine these properties, and provide basic information that may be used in their technical applications. Important components of the work include the education of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, as well as the development of advanced instrumentation and experimental techniques used for this work and made available to the broader scientific community.
