Quantum matter on-a-chip

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In recent years, the electronic properties of low-dimensional structures such as electrons 'trapped' in quantum wells (2D), flowing in a quantum wire (1D) or forming a quantum dot (0D), have drawn a high-level of interest for both fundamental aspects and promising device applications. As the temperature of the electrons present in these structures is reduced toward very near absolute zero, totally new properties emerge from a competition between many-body electron-electron interactions, disorder, and fluctuations. Examples of interest include 'bizarre' phenomena such as the fractionalization of charge excitations in 2D, fractional (abelian and perhaps non-abelian) quantum statistics in 2D, as well as the separation of spin and charge predicted to occur in 1D. These phenomena cannot be understood in terms of classical or Boltzmann physics; they are the result of the subtle mechanics that emerge when quantum particles interact near T=0. Our group at McGill works at elucidating new quantum phases of matter 'on-chip' in semiconductor tailor-made electronic and fluidic structures.