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

非技术摘要：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。非常小的物理系统，其中一维或多维被降低到100纳米以下，通常表现出与较大物体截然不同的行为。尽管对这种纳米尺度体系的研究非常活跃，已经揭示了新的现象和有前途的新技术，但仍有许多有待探索的地方。这项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级系统和新材料的热学性质。这些性质提供了关于系统中电子、振动和磁激发的有价值的信息，但传统上很难测量。该项目专注于用于这些测量的新的微米和纳米机械工具，并将允许人们对这些小系统的行为进行重要的观察，这些行为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开发等领域。计划通过三项主要任务将教育与这项工作结合起来：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，并通过提供以实验室为基础的强化暑期短期课程，向当地中学教育工作者推广。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。该学院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质来加深我们对小结构和新材料中的电子、振动和磁激发的理解。在小尺寸物质的图案化和操纵方面的持续进展导致了基础研究，这些研究揭示了这些微小系统中的电子、振动和磁激发可以表现出与整体系统大不相同的行为。尽管一个或多个样品尺寸降至100美元纳米以下的激动人心的制度正在非常积极地探索，但这些微小系统的热性质的测量仍然具有挑战性。该奖项支持对从纳米线阵列到块状单晶的各种系统的热导率、热电势和比热的测量，这些系统允许对物理进行新颖的系统研究，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子的热传输，到从扩散声子传输到弹道声子传输的交叉，再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。计划通过三项主要任务将教育与这项工作结合起来：在物理学入门课程和凝聚态物理课程中继续使用和发展互动教学技术，在实验室环境中对学生进行实践教育，并通过提供关于凝聚态和纳米尺度物理的强化实验室暑期短期课程，向当地中学教育工作者进行推广。

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.