9317748 Schuller Technical abstract: This proposal relates to the growth, characterization, and modeling of the physical properties of strongly correlated electron systems of varying dimensionality. The systems to be studied are mostly prepared using state-of-the-art thin film deposition and electron beam and scanning tunneling lithography techniques. The condensed matter problems studied include dimensional transitions from zero to one, one to two, and two to three dimensions in superconductivity and magnetism. A crucial and essential ingredient proposed here is the structural and chemical characterization of the artificial structures used in these studies. The materials will be grown using sputtering and molecular beam epitaxi. The growth techniques will be correlated with in situ and ex situ structural characterization techniques combined with simulation and refinement methods developed in the principal investigator's laboratory. Non-technical abstract: The study of novel materials in restricted geometries provides the basic research basis and is directly related to applications in the field of microelectronics, including the development of novel sensors, devices and recording media. The condensed matter problems studied include dimensional transitions from zero to one to two and three dimensions in superconductivity and magnetism. A crucial and essential ingredient proposed here is the structural and chemical characterization of the artificial structures used in these studies. The materials will be grown using a variety of growth techniques. The growth techniques will be correlated with structural characterization techniques developed in the principal investigator's laboratory. ***
