Low Energy Electrodynamics in Solids with Strong Electron Correlations

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Non-Technical Abstract:In many newly discovered materials, there is a particularly strong interaction between the electron charges or between the magnetic moments leading to new phenomena at relatively low temperatures. Examples include superconductivity - ability to conduct electricity without any loss - or other complex macroscopically ordered phases of charge and spin distributions. Understanding the unconventional properties of these materials presents a great intellectual challenge, and enhancement of transition temperatures of such macroscopically ordered states is critical to developing new technologies. This project investigates the basic mechanisms responsible for unconventional properties of strongly interacting materials by scattering light (i.e., "photons") from the materials while tuning the materials' properties through their novel phases. The goals of this project are to better understand the conditions responsible for the emerging properties, and to assist in development of novel materials with enhanced functionality. Technical Abstract:Interaction between electrons in "strongly correlated materials" is associated with many scientifically important and technologically useful phenomena, including superconductivity and exotically ordered charge and spin phases. This project applies the advances in low energy spectroscopy to characterize these extraordinary self-organized electronic phases, determine the condition under which they are formed, identify the underlying microscopic mechanisms, and test the relevant theories. This project also provides broad training to postdoc and undergraduate students in low-temperature high resolution magneto-optical spectroscopy.