Collective Dynamics and Mesoscale Physics of Quasi-One-Dimensional Conductors

这一个人研究人员奖将资助一个研究三硒化铌薄膜和单晶中移动电荷密度波(CDW)的项目。该项目将把晶体和薄膜生长与各种表征技术结合起来。将通过应用空间和时间分辨的输运测量以及新的衍射工具来探索这些材料。特别是，空间分辨的输运和相干的x射线衍射测量将探索最近发现的一种极慢的蠕动形式的集体运动的原因，这种集体运动表现出时间顺序。相关的一阶动态跃迁也将被研究。CDW传导噪声的空间分辨测量将被用来研究CDW动力学中的时空关联。通过生长腔和靶材的修饰以及晶格匹配的衬底，可以生长出具有更好的颗粒尺寸和传输性能的完全取向的薄膜。这些薄膜以及单晶将被用来制备各种CDW微结构和异质结构，这些微结构和异质结构将允许研究CDW物理的基本方面，CDW、超导和金属状态之间的相互作用，以及这些非凡材料的潜在应用。这项工作将为研究生和本科生提供现代材料科学、固体物理和纳米技术概念和技术的极好培训。包括高温超导体、导电聚合物、碳纳米管和电荷密度波(CDW)导体在内的新型电子材料阐明了固体电子设备工作的基本物理过程，并为创造明天的电子产品提供了机会。仅次于超导体，CDW导体可能是迄今发现的最了不起的电子材料。对这些材料的理解和实际应用的一个重要障碍是缺乏用于制造器件的高质量薄膜。这一障碍现在正在被克服，并且已经制备了第一批CDW导体三硒化铌薄膜。这一个人研究人员奖将资助一个项目，该项目专注于提高这些薄膜的质量，用它们来准备不同寻常的器件结构，然后探索这些器件的基本和有用的特性。这项工作将为研究生和本科生提供现代材料科学、固体物理和纳米技术的概念和技术方面的极好培训。

This individual investigator award will fund a project to study moving charge-density waves (CDWs) in niobium triselenide films and single crystals. The project will combine crystal and film growth with various characterization techniques. The materials will be explored through the application of spatially and temporally resolved transport measurements as well as novel diffraction tools. In particular, spatially-resolved transport and coherent x-ray diffraction measurements will explore the cause of a recently discovered form of extremely slow creep-like collective motion that exhibits temporal order. A related first-order dynamic transition will also be studied. Spatially-resolved measurements of CDW conduction noise will be used to investigate spatio-temporal correlations in CDW dynamics. Through growth chamber and target modifications and lattice-matched substrates fully oriented films with improved grain sizes and transport properties will be grown. These films as well as single crystals will be used to fabricate a variety of CDW microstructures and heterostructures that will allow study of fundamental aspects of CDW physics, of interactions between the CDW, superconducting, and metallic states, and of potential applications of these remarkable materials. This work will provide excellent training to graduate and undergraduate students in the concepts and techniques of modern materials science, solid-state physics, and nanotechnology.Novel electronic materials including high-temperature superconductors, conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes, and charge-density-wave (CDW) conductors illuminate the fundamental physical processes that underlie how solid state electronic devices work, and provide opportunities for creating the electronics of tomorrow. Next to superconductors, CDW conductors are perhaps the most remarkable electronic materials ever discovered. An important barrier to the understanding, and practical application, of these materials has been the lack of high-quality thin films from which to fabricate devices. This barrier is now being overcome, and the first thin films of the CDW conductor niobium triselenide have been prepared. This individual investigator award will fund a project that focuses on improving the quality of these films, preparing unusual device structures from them, and then exploring the fundamental and useful properties of these devices. This work will provide excellent training to graduate and undergraduate students in the concepts and techniques of modern materials science, solid-state physics, and nanotechnology.