Collective Phases of Two-Dimensional Electronic Matter

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*****NON-TECHNICAL ABSTRACT****Condensed matter physics deals with the properties of large numbers of very strongly interacting particles. The remarkable fact is that the phenomena exhibited by such many-particle systems usually cannot be predicted, even though the properties of the individual constituent particles are extremely well understood. In modern parlance, the bizarre and often stunning aspects of condensed matter (e.g. superconductivity) somehow "emerge" from the seemingly hopelessly complex motion of vast numbers of elementary particles. Thus indeed, the whole is very much more than the sum of its parts. This individual investigator award will support research on precisely this issue of emergence. While the focus will be on electronic phenomena occurring in advanced semiconductor structures which have close connections to high technology, the intellectual questions to be addressed have a broader significance. In addition to advancing the frontier of knowledge of strongly interacting condensed matter, this work will directly contribute to the education and training of the graduate students and postdocs responsible for its execution. By extension, this award will also contribute to the larger goal of enhancing the national competitiveness in important areas of high technology.*****TECHNICAL ABSTRACT****This individual investigator award supports experimental research on the fundamental properties of strongly correlated electron systems in low dimensional structures. The research program has three main foci. First, the question of whether superfluidity exists in the recently discovered Bose-Einstein condensate of excitons in double layer electron systems will be addressed. Second, nuclear magnetic resonance techniques will be employed to uncover the spin structure of various exotic correlated electron phases, including that in single-walled carbon nanotubes. Finally, electronic correlation phenomena will be examined in equilibrium via measurements of the thermodynamic compressibility. Each of these areas is ripe for significant discoveries. The experimental work will be performed almost exclusively by graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. As such, this project contributes very directly to their education and training and indirectly to the national competitiveness in important areas of high technology.