US-Germany Cooperative Research on Coherence Effects on Nonlinear Optical Properties in Strongly-Correlated Insulators and Metals

此奖项支持加州大学圣迭戈分校的陆深教授和一名初级助理与德国耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学的Friedhelm Bechstedt教授合作。他们正在研究强相关绝缘体和金属中的相干效应。特别是，他们将研究通过系统的非线性光学响应来检测相干性的可能性。合作研究小组带来互补的专业知识，在许多身体理论和凝聚态系统的光学性质。强电子-电子相关在现代金属和绝缘体（如铜化合物和重费米子化合物）的电子特性中起着关键作用。如果光激发相干效应可以在理论上证明存在，这将为大量金属和绝缘体中的强相关提供一个可操作的定义。反过来，这将导致实验观察强相关行为的光学手段和强相关理论预测的有效光学测试。

This award supports Professor Lu Sham and a junior associate of the University of California at San Diego to collaborate with Professor Friedhelm Bechstedt of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. They are studying coherence effects in strongly-correlated insulators and metals. In particular, they will investigate the possible detectability of coherence through the nonlinear optical response of the system. The collaborating research groups bring complementary expertise in many body theory and in optical properties of condensed matter systems. Strong electron-electron correlation plays a pivotal role in the electronic properties of modern metals and insulators such as the cuprate compounds and the heavy fermion compounds. If optically excited coherence effects can be shown to exist in theory, this will provide an operational definition for strong correlation in a large number of metals and insulators. In turn, this would lead to an optical means for experimentally observing strongly correlated behavior and an effective optical test for predictions of strong-correlation theories.