Superconductivity and Nonequilibrium Transport in Mesoscopic Metals

[0104178]这个研究者个人奖为介观金属线的电子物理研究提供资金。它利用微加工工具来研究发生在亚微米长度尺度上的固体过程。四个主题构成了本研究的重点；1) 1K以下小金属丝中电子的消相和能量交换；2)磁/非磁混合体系的自旋极化输运；3)超导体/非超导体（正常和磁性）结构中的电子传递；4)自组装稀土硅化物纳米线的生长和电子输运。在每种情况下，计划的实验都旨在增加我们对观察到的现象的理解，以及寻找潜在的设备应用。在这四个项目中工作的研究生和博士后学习了与微加工相关的各种技术技能。他们的研究经验为他们在学术界、国家实验室或工业领域的工作做好了准备。大量的微加工工具已经开发出来，使半导体工业能够在单个芯片上制造具有数百万个晶体管的集成电路。这些相同的工具使研究人员能够在远低于一微米的长度尺度上研究金属的行为，这是许多新的奇怪现象发生的地方。例如，宏观金属中的电子在室温下的行为本质上就像网球，即它们遵循经典物理学的规则。相比之下，亚微米样品中的电子在低温下表现得更像波，即它们遵循量子力学的规则。这导致了许多有趣的性质，比如一些金属在低温下变成超导，另一些是磁性的，还有一些仍然是正常的金属。当不同种类的金属结合在一起，比如超导体和普通金属，或者铁磁性金属和非磁性金属，新事物就会发生。这个个人研究者奖将资助对这些非常小的样本的特性的研究，以揭开有时神秘的新行为，并寻找可能的新型有用设备。在这个领域工作的学生和博士后研究人员熟悉了工业中使用的微加工工具，他们也学会了如何思考非常小的设备的物理学。这个研究项目的前学生和博士后现在在工业界、政府实验室和学术界工作

0104178BirgeThis individual investigator award funds research in electron physics in mesoscopic metallic wires. It exploits microfabrication tools to study processes in solids that occur on submicron length scales. Four topics form the focus of the research; 1) the dephasing and energy exchange between electrons in small metallic wires below 1K; 2) spin-polarized transport in hybrid magnetic/non-magnetic systems; 3) electron transport in superconductor/non-superconductor (normal and magnetic) structures; and 4) growth of and electron transport in self-assembled rare-earth silicide nanowires. In each case the planned experiments are aimed at increasing our understanding of observed phenomena, as well as searching for potential device applications. The graduate students and post-docs working on all four of these projects learn a wide variety of technical skills associated with microfabrication. Their research experience prepares them for jobs in academia, national labs, or industry.%%%A vast array of microfabrication tools has been developed to enable the semiconductor industry to fabricate integrated circuits with millions of transistors on a single chip. Those same tools allow researchers to study the behavior of metals on length scales well below one micrometer, where many new strange phenomena occur. For example, electrons in macroscopic metals at room temperature behave essentially like tennis balls, i.e. they obey the rules of classical physics. In contrast, electrons in sub-micrometer samples at low temperature behave more like waves, i.e. they obey the rules of quantum mechanics. This leads to many interesting properties, such as the fact that some metals become superconducting at low temperature, others are magnetic, and still others remain normal metals. When different kinds of metals are put together, such as superconductors and normal metals, or ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metals, new things happen. This individual investigator award will fund research into the properties of such very small samples in order to unravel the sometimes-mysterious new behavior, as well as to search for possible new kinds of useful devices. Students and post-doctoral research associates working in this area become familiar with the microfabrication tools used in industry, and they also learn how to think about the physics of very small devices. Former students and post-docs from this research program now work in industry, government labs, and academia.***