Quantum behaviours in disordered systems

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Energy and charge transport play fundamental roles in both electronic devices and biological systems, and recent advances in our understanding show surprising parallels between what is needed for a molecular electronic technology and understanding key aspects of living systems. In particular, exciting advances have been made in the understanding of transport mechanisms within disordered media. Disorder can create trapping sites for electrons that in turn prevent stable operation of devices such as transistors. However, disorder can also switch conduction on and off through an Anderson transition that may play a role both in transistors and proteins.MoS2 is one of the the most promising materials for future electronics but it is plagued with instabilities that can prevent reliable operation. By studying the traps created by the fabrication processes involved in building devices from composites of MoS2 nanosheets, we seek to develop a better understanding of how to minimise the trapping. As we do this, we will study the role of the Anderson transitions in these devices. Ultimately we expect to use this knowledge to build stable transistors, sensors, photovoltaic and memory devices.Cytochrome c oxidase is a proton pumping protein that is central to life, yet its function is poorly understood. However, it is clear that the function is related to the interaction of metals within the protein. Recent advances in microfluidics will allow us to study such proteins with similar methods as used to study MoS2 . We hope to understand the role that Anderson transitions may play in such proteins, providing insight into a fundamental challenge in biochemistry. We believe that we can develop more effective assembly methods for transmembrane proteins so that we can use photon-driven proton pumps in photovoltaic and photosensing systems. The insights we gain into transport in proteins may help enable a future molecular electronics technology. Each student will typically design, build and test their own systems, starting from first principles, thereby providing hands-on training. This work will develop areas of industrial significance (notably electronics, energy production) for which there is a demand for skilled personnel and the students will receive unusually broad training in the fields of microfabrication, lab-on-chip, biochemistry, micro-optics and micro/nanoelectronics.