This award supports theoretical condensed matter physics research and education focusing on metals based spintronics, and on two-dimensional electron systems including the quantum Hall effect. Research will concentrate on spin related phenomena in magnetic metals and semiconductors and on the physics of two-dimensional electron systems including the quantum Hall effect. The research on magnetic metals will build on the idea that the self-energy of quasiparticles in an interacting electron system is modified when the system is in a transport steady state rather than an equilibrium state, and that these shifts in self-energy can be phenomenologically consequential. Spin torques in ferromagnetic metals provide one example of this idea, but the PI plans to explore many others. One generalization is to transport current driven order parameter dynamics in antiferromagnetic metals. The work on magnetism in semiconductors is motivated by the desire to understand limits on the ferromagnetic transition temperature in low-carrier density systems and by the quest for useful new materials. Progress with this research program will be built on knowledge of the phenomenological properties of metals and semiconductors, including magnetic properties, and on experience with the techniques of quantum transport theory and quantum many-body theory. Education at a graduate and undergraduate level is intertwined in an essential way with the research providing a platform for educating future scientists and engineers that will contribute to the technological knowledge base of the country. Efforts will be made to share the excitement of the science with the general public through public lectures and through the PI's web site. These interactions will also be used to help explain the critical importance of scientific research in our country and the world. The research may have impact on the semiconductor technology industry. Insights based on this research program will be shared freely with industrial contacts. This award supports mentoring underrepresented students and in fostering diversity in the physics community; female and minority Graduate students supported by this research program will contribute to building a physics research community that is more diverse.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This award supports theoretical condensed matter physics research and education focusing on exciting phenomena that may be exhibited by electrons in magnetic materials and in materials in which they are effectively confined to two dimensions. As a consequence of its quantum mechanical nature, an electron has spin, an intrinsic amount of angular momentum, as if it spins like a top. The magnetic properties of materials are fundamentally connected to the electron spin. The PI will carry out fundamental research to study magnetic semiconductors and magnetic metals with an aim to discovering new phenomena associated with electron spin and how spin moves through these materials. Understanding such phenomena may lead to new ways of storing, transmitting, and manipulating information, and to new devices that depend not only on the electron charge for their operation but also on their spin. Magnetic materials hold the key to enable the realization of spintronic devices. The PI aims to further understand fundamental limitations on the highest temperature at which magnetic semiconductors exhibit magnetism. The PI will also carry out research on graphine, essentially a two-dimensional layer of graphite, and on quantum well systems that contain electrons that are effectively confined to two dimensions. The PI will explore the possibility that new states of matter may occur in these systems that exhibit superconductivity or novel spin related phenomena. Education at a graduate and undergraduate level is intertwined in an essential way with the research providing a platform for educating future scientists and engineers that will contribute to the technological knowledge base of the country. Efforts will be made to share the excitement of the science with the general public through public lectures and through the PI's web site. These interactions will also be used to help explain the critical importance of scientific research in our country and the world. The research may have impact on the semiconductor technology industry. Insights based on this research program will be shared freely with industrial contacts. This award supports mentoring underrepresented students and in fostering diversity in the physics community; female and minority Graduate students supported by this research program will contribute to building a physics research community that is more diverse.
