Materials World Network - Collaborative Research: Decoherence, Correlations and Spin Effects in Nanostructured Materials

该材料世界网络/美洲材料合作奖支持美国，巴西和智利参与者之间的联合研究和教育计划，以探索纳米级或降维材料中的电子相关性的影响：表面上的磁性原子和分子，碳纳米管和石墨烯，半导体和其他材料中的量子点。通过制造方法和局部测量技术的进步，实验在纳米尺度上探测相关性的能力日益增强，这引起了许多关于系统的新问题，这些系统长期以来被认为是在整体或整体中被理解的。自旋之间的相关性，磁性杂质排序和筛选之间的竞争，不同体制之间可能的量子相变，以及退相干的影响，现在都可以在实验中探索。这项研究的目的是解决这些问题，这些问题对基本的物理理解至关重要，也对从纳米磁性和信息存储到大量新的碳基电子设备，甚至通过控制电子系统中的自旋自由度来处理量子信息等领域的可能技术应用具有重要意义。目标是为相关电子行为提供物理见解，并指导实验测量新特性。理论研究在美国的俄亥俄大学、佛罗里达大学和奥克兰大学进行；在巴西的里约热内卢天主教大学和佛罗里达联邦大学；以及智利的北方天主教大学、费德里科圣玛丽亚理工大学、智利天主教大学和安托法加斯塔大学。这些机构的小组将他们的互补专业知识与不同的理论技术相结合，包括数值重整化组和嵌入式聚类近似，这些理论技术在处理非平凡相关问题方面已被证明是可靠的。与合作内部（在巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州联邦大学）和外部的实验小组密切沟通，保持与感兴趣的实际系统的联系。该项目非常重视培训美国和拉丁美洲的年轻科学家，让他们在高度合作的国际环境中参与当前的研究。学生和博士后学习现代技术，这些技术将为他们提供在科学领域取得成功的工具，并为他们提供在工业领域获得高就业率的技能。初级研究人员与主要专家一起参加了两个小型研讨会，一个在巴西举行，另一个在美国举行。此外，还有协调一致和精心策划的努力，通过一个网站，提供有关现代纳米科学发展的可访问文章，一个学校参观计划，以及展示研究成果的教育视频和吸引人的图像，来接触到K-12级别的更广泛的受众。该奖项与国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

This Materials World Network/Inter-American Materials Collaboration award supports a joint research and education program between participants in the US, Brazil, and Chile to explore effects of electron correlations in nanoscale or reduced-dimensionality materials: magnetic adatoms and molecules on surfaces, carbon nanotubes and graphene, and quantum dots in semiconductors and other materials. The increasing ability of experiments to probe correlations at the nanometer scale via advances in fabrication methods and local measurement techniques has given rise to a host of new questions about systems long considered understood in the bulk or in ensembles. Correlations between spins, competition between ordering and screening of magnetic impurities, possible quantum phase transitions between different regimes, and effects of decoherence, are all now explorable in experiments. The research is directed to address these issues, which are intrinsically important to basic physics understanding, as well as to possible technological uses in areas ranging from nanomagnetism and information storage to a host of new carbon-based electronic devices, and even quantum information processing by control of the spin degrees of freedom in electronic systems. The goal is to provide physical insights into correlated electron behaviors and to guide experiments to measure novel properties.Theoretical research is conducted in the US at Ohio University, the University of Florida, and Oakland University; in Brazil at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro and the Universidade Federal Fluminense; and in Chile at the Universidad Catolica del Norte, the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and the Universidad de Antofagasta. Groups at these institutions combine their complementary expertise with different theoretical techniques, including the numerical renormalization group and the embedded cluster approximation, that are proven and reliable in treating nontrivial correlated problems. Close communication with experimental groups both inside the collaboration (at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil) and outside maintain connections with real systems of interest. The project places significant emphasis on training young scientists in the US and Latin America, by engaging them in current research in a highly collaborative and international environment. Students and a postdoctoral fellow learn modern techniques that will provide them with tools for successful careers in science and with skills that will make them highly employable in industry. Junior researchers are brought together with leading experts at two mini-workshops, one held in Brazil, the other in the US. There are also concerted and well-planned efforts to reach a broader audience at the K-12 levels, through a web site with accessible articles on modern nanoscience developments, a program of school visits, and educational videos and attractive images showing research results.This award is co-funded with the Office of International Science and Engineering.