US-Switzerland Cooperative Research on Correlated Electron Systems

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9414840 Mihaly This award supports Professor Laszlo Mihaly and a graduate student of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, joined by Dr. Gwyn Williams of Brookhaven National Laboratory, to collaborate in solid state physics with Professor Laszlo Forro of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. They will explore electron states in selected superconducting materials by measuring the optical conductivity from the far infrared to the visible range. The participants bring to the collaboration a unique combination of facilities and expertise for the study of the infrared transmission properties of thin crystalline films. In particular, Dr. Forro at EPFL has developed a special sample preparation method for extremely thin single crystals which permits optical analyses of a variety of anisotropic materials. He will investigate the magnetic and electronic transport properties of the samples. Most of the optical spectroscopy work will be carried out at Stony Brook, while low frequency infrared measurements will be made at the National Synchrotron Light source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Superconductivity, spin density waves and charge density waves are all manifestations of electron correlations. While the interaction between the electrons and the nature of the electronic ground state are profoundly different for these three phenomena, there are also important similarities among them. This U.S.-Swiss collaborative research will experimentally analyze three model materials each of which exhibits one of these phenomena, in order to improve understanding of the electron correlations which cause these interesting and potentially useful phenomena. The results should be of particular interest to condensed matter physicists working in the area of high temperature superconductivity. ***