Transport Properties of Metallic Microstructures

这项研究涉及超小型金属结构中的电子输运。这些结构中的一个或多个维度是1000量级或更少。我们将研究无序系统中有关电子运动的基本问题。这些结构也将被用作研究基本物理现象的工具。将研究的主题包括降维对磁性杂质行为的影响(近藤效应)，微波场存在时的非线性行为，单个100&>粒子中通过量子隧道的磁化反转，以及一维超导电性。超小型金属结构构成了当前所有微电子设备的基础。这些设备的小尺寸是其高性能和低成本的核心，因此人们一直希望开发更小的设备。这项研究的目的有两个。首先，研究尺寸在100纳米以下的金属结构的基本性质。虽然这比目前可用的商业设备要小得多，但这种尺寸范围的结构在未来几代设备中将非常重要。了解这些结构的行为是很重要的，特别是因为它们可能会表现出较大结构中没有的新特性。其次，这些结构将被用作研究基本现象的工具。在许多情况下，这些结构可以用来探测较大结构无法达到的效果。例子包括一维的超导电性，以及限制对金属中磁性离子的影响。

This research concerns electronic transport in ultra-small metallic structures. These are structures in which one or more dimensions are of order 1000 > or less. Fundamental questions concerning electron motion in disordered systems will be investigated. These structures will also be used as tools for the study of fundamental physical phenomena. Topics which will be investigated include the effects of reduced dimensionality on the behavior of magnetic impurities (Kondo effect), nonlinear behavior in the presence of microwave fields, magnetization reversal through quantum tunneling in individual 100 > particles, and superconductivity in one dimension. %%% Ultra-small metallic structures form the basis of all current microelectronic devices. The small size of these devices is central to their high performance and low cost, and thus there is a continuing desire to develop ever smaller devices. The purpose of this research is two-fold. First, to study the fundamental properties of metallic structures with sizes below 100 nanometers. While this is considerably smaller than currently available commercial devices, structures in this size range will be of great importance in future generations of devices. It is important to understand the behavior of these structures, particularly since they will likely exhibit new properties which are not found in larger structures. Second, these structures will be used as tools in the study of fundamental phenomena. In many cases these structures can be used to probe effects which are not accessible with larger structures. Examples include superconductivity in one dimension, and the effect of confinement on magnetic ions in metals.