Presidential Faculty Fellows/Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PFF/PECASE)

Marcus这个实验项目将促进对物质介观尺度行为的基本理解，特别是量子力学混沌行为的出现。实验研究需要制造半导体微结构，以线和点的形式，并在毫开尔文温度下测量它们的电子特性。电导波动的普遍统计与混沌的量子表现有关。该项目的教育部分包括寻找在新生物理教学中使用先进教科书的成功方法，以及将本科生整合到实验室研究中。这项研究旨在了解半导体微电子器件性能的变化，这些变化最终将使器件变得更小。为了提高计算机芯片（如奔腾芯片）的速度和复杂性，更小的设备是可取的，但预计计算机芯片的速度和复杂性的进一步发展最终将受到电子行为的不同物理规则的限制。目前的研究将有助于我们理解这种行为的转变。这项工作也可能提出新的器件设计，这些设计可能在极小的器件尺寸和高器件密度的理想限制方面优越。该项目的教育部分涉及大学初级物理教学的新方法，以及让理科生更早接触实验室研究的新方法。＊＊＊

w:\awards\awards96\num.doc 9629180 Marcus This experimental project will advance the fundamental understanding of the mesoscopic scale behavior of matter, and particularly the appearance of quantum-mechanical chaotic behavior. The experimental research entails fabrication of semiconductor microstructures, in the form of wires and dots, and the measurement of their electronic properties at millikelvin temperatures. Universal statistics of conductance fluctuations are connected to quantum manifestations of chaos. The educational components of the project involve finding successful ways to use advanced textbooks in the teaching of freshman physics, and the integration of undergraduate students in laboratory research. %%% The research carried out searches for understanding of changes in the performance of semiconductor microelectronic devices that eventually will result from making the devices ever smaller. Smaller devices are desirable in improving the speed and complexity of computer chips such as the Pentium chip, but it is expected further advances in the speed and complexity of computer chips will eventually be limited by the onset of different physical rules for electron behavior. The present research will contribute to our understanding of this transition in behavior. The work may also suggest new device designs which may be superior in the desirable limit of extremely small device size and high device density. The educational components of the project relate to novel methods in teaching elementary college physics and in giving undergraduate science students an earlier exposure to laboratory research. ***