CAREER: Electrons, Phonons, and Magnons in Nanostructures and Novel Materials

摘要：该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。非常小的物理系统，其中一个或多个维度被缩小到100纳米以下，通常表现出与大物体截然不同的行为。尽管对这种纳米级机制的研究非常活跃，并且已经揭示了新的现象和有前途的新技术，但仍有许多未被探索。这个教师早期职业奖的主要研究目标是使用新的和独特的方法来探索纳米系统和新型材料的热性能。这些性质为系统中的电子、振动和磁激励提供了有价值的信息，但传统上难以测量。该项目侧重于用于这些测量的新型微纳米加工工具，并将允许对这些小型系统的行为进行重要的观察，这些系统可能会影响从不断缩小的计算机芯片的热管理到新信息存储技术的发展等领域。计划通过三个主要任务将教育与这项工作相结合：在入门和高级物理课程中继续使用和开发互动教学技术，在实验室环境中对学生进行动手教育，并通过提供基于实验室的强化夏季短期课程向当地中学教育者推广。技术摘要：该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这个教师早期职业奖的主要研究目标是通过直接测量这些系统的热性能，加深我们对小结构和新材料中的电子、振动和磁激励的理解。在小尺度物质的图形化和操作方面的持续进步已经导致了一些基础研究，这些研究揭示了这些微小系统中的电子、振动和磁激励的行为与整体系统中的行为大不相同。尽管人们正在积极探索将一个或多个样品尺寸减小到100美元纳米以下的令人兴奋的机制，但这些微小系统的热性能测量仍然具有挑战性。该奖项支持测量系统的导热性、热功率和比热，范围从纳米线阵列到块状单晶，允许对物理进行新的系统研究，范围从小型结构中的电子-声子相互作用，到小型自旋系统中通过磁振子的热输运，从漫射到弹道声子输运的交叉，到由纳米磁性元件制造的自旋系统中的磁相互作用和磁熵。计划通过三个主要任务将教育与这项工作结合起来：在入门物理和凝聚态物理课程中继续使用和开发交互式教学技术，在实验室环境中对学生进行动手教育，并通过提供基于实验室的凝聚态和纳米级物理暑期强化短期课程，向当地中学教育工作者推广。

NON TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Very small physical systems, where one or more dimension is reduced below 100 nanometers, often show dramatically different behavior than larger objects. Though research into this nanoscale regime is very active and has already revealed new phenomena and promising new technologies, much remains unexplored. The main research goal of this Faculty Early Career Award is to use new and unique methods to explore the thermal properties of nanoscaled systems and novel materials. These properties provide valuable information on the electronic, vibrational and magnetic excitations in a system, but are traditionally difficult to measure. This project focuses on new micro- and nanomachined tools for these measurements, and will allow an important view into the behavior of these small systems that could impact areas from heat management in ever-shrinking computer chips to the development of new information storage technologies. Integration of education with this work is planned via three main tasks: continued use and new development of interactive teaching techniques in both introductory and advanced physics courses, hands-on education of students in the laboratory environment, and outreach to local secondary educators by offering an intensive lab-based summer short course. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The main research goal of this Faculty Early Career Award is to deepen our understanding of electronic, vibrational, and magnetic excitations in small structures and novel materials by direct measurements of the thermal properties of these systems. Continued advances in the patterning and manipulation of matter at small length scales has lead to fundamental studies that reveal that the electronic, vibrational, and magnetic excitations in these tiny systems can behave much differently than in the bulk. Though the exciting regime where one or more sample dimensions is reduced below $100$ nanometers is being very actively explored, measurements of thermal properties of these tiny systems remain challenging. This award supports measurements of thermal conductivity, thermopower, and specific heat of systems ranging from nanowire arrays to bulk single crystals that allow novel systematic studies of physics ranging from electron-phonon interactions in small structures, to thermal transport via magnons in small spin systems, to the cross-over from diffuse to ballistic phonon transport, to the magnetic interactions and magnetic entropy in spin systems fabricated from nanomagnetic elements. Integration of education with this work is planned via three main tasks: continued use and new development of interactive teaching techniques in both introductory physics and condensed matter physics courses, hands-on education of students in the laboratory environment, and outreach to local secondary educators by offering an intensive lab-based summer short course on condensed matter and nanoscale physics.