FRG: Quantum Tuning of Superconducting, Plasmonic, and Chemical Properties of Metallic Nanostructures

技术概述：尺寸缩小的功能材料是现代材料研究的核心。通过揭示生长科学中的基本概念和开发先进的合成技术，材料科学家努力通过具有终极原子精度的尺寸控制来定制新型材料。这项科学事业是由这样一种认识驱动的：通过降低系统的维度，系统内的量子效应被调得更加明显，可能会产生具有技术意义的新兴物理特性。这个FRG项目开创了一个被称为“电子生长”的创新概念的制定和发展，强调了在定义各种金属薄膜和纳米结构在不同衬底上的整体稳定性以及首选生长模式时，流动电子的量子力学受限运动的重要性。这个新概念的深远影响在于它的使能作用：它为利用量子尺寸效应来精确控制金属结构的形成提供了基础；反过来，在量子体系中形成的这种结构必然会成为阐明有趣的量子特性的有吸引力的平台。新阶段的研究重点将集中在探索量子增长的新领域。中心目标将是获得在量子制度下量身定制的金属系统的特性可调性，围绕三个推力开发，每个推力都具有深远的基础和实际重要性：(a)低维电子系统中的超导性；(b)在量子状态下调谐等离子体特性；(c)量子金属合金的形成和催化性能。非技术概述：本提案旨在创建一个跨学科的研究项目，重点研究金属纳米结构的物理性质由量子尺寸效应主导的研究领域。最终的研究目标是利用材料合成的原子尺度控制来调整量子状态下的物理性质。本方案注重科研与教育的结合，培养具有国际竞争力的学生和博士后。这种设置是通过该FRG团队与橡树岭国家实验室（ORNL）的独特合作伙伴关系提供的。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、诺克斯维尔分校和ORNL共同为美国下一代材料研究领域的领导者提供了一个密切合作的跨学科研究/教育平台。调查人员还致力于向各级更广泛的受众进行教育推广。这将通过多种方式实现，包括(a)提供专题课程，丰富纳米科学与技术课程，这些课程也面向更广泛的本科生；(b)加强面向德克萨斯州全州高中师生的夏季纳米科学与纳米技术学院的外展计划。(c)针对参加田纳西州州长科学与工程学校的高中生，为他们提供研究培训。最后，这个项目完全致力于扩大弱势群体在研究生研究中的参与，具体目标是提高女性或/和西班牙裔研究生的比例。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:Elegantly fabricated functional materials with reduced dimensions occupy a central stage of modern materials research. By uncovering fundamental enabling concepts in growth science and developing advanced synthesis techniques, materials scientists strive to tailor novel materials through dimensional control with the ultimate atomic precision. This scientific enterprise is driven by the realization that, by reducing the dimensionality of the systems, quantum effects within the systems are tuned to be more pronounced, potentially resulting in emergent physical properties of technological significance. This FRG program pioneered in the formulation and development of an innovative concept, termed "electronic growth", stressing the vital importance of quantum mechanically confined motion of the itinerant electrons in defining the overall stability as well as the preferred growth mode of a variety of metal films and nanostructures on different substrates. The far-reaching impact of this new concept lies in its enabling role: It provides the basis on which quantum size effects can be exploited to precisely control the formation of metallic structures; such structures formed in the quantum regime, in turn, are bound to serve as appealing platforms for elucidating intriguing quantum properties. The proposed research emphasis in the new phase will focus on exploration of new frontiers of quantum growth. The central objectives will be to gain property tunability of the metal systems tailored in the quantum regime, developed around three thrusts, each of profound fundamental and practical importance: (a) Superconductivity in Low Dimensional Electron Systems; (b) Tuning Plasmonic Properties in the in the Quantum Regime; and (c) Formation and Catalytic Properties of Quantum Metal Alloys.NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This proposal is aimed at creating an inter-disciplinary research program focusing on the research area of metallic nanostructures where the physical properties are dominated by quantum size effects. The ultimate research goals are to use atomic scale control of materials synthesis to tune the physical properties in the quantum regime. The proposal focuses on the integration research and education to train internationally competitive students and postdocs. This setting is provided through the unique partnership of this FRG team with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Together, UT-Austin, UT-Knoxville, and ORNL provide a closely collaborative, inter-disciplinary research/educational platform for next generation of US leaders in materials research. The investigators are also committed to educational outreach to a broader audience at all levels. This will be accomplished with multi-prone approaches including (a) offering special topic courses which enrich the curriculum in Nanoscience and Technology that are also accessible to broader undergraduate students, (b) enhancing the outreach program of Summer Academy of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology for State-wide high school teachers and students in Texas, and (c) targeting high school students who are participating in the Tennessee Governor's school for the Sciences and Engineering by offering them research training. Finally, this program is fully committed to broadening participation of under-represented groups in graduate research with specific goals of increasing the percentage of graduate students that are woman or/and of Hispanic background.