Engineering Strongly Correlated Quantum Phases Through Symmetry Breaking in GNRs

加州大学伯克利分校的Felix Fischer教授得到化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学计划的支持，开发自下而上的一维石墨烯纳米带量子材料的合成、纯化和研究。这些合成产品是为与下一代电子产品相关的特定铁磁、金属和超导性能量身定做的。石墨烯纳米带是一类新兴的自下而上合成设计型量子材料的代表，其电子结构可以通过化学设计进行原子精度的调节。制造的材料将成为更强大、更紧凑的磁体、低功耗便携式电子设备、量子传感器、加速数据处理系统以及更高效的能源产生、转换和转换技术的新方案的基础。该项目承诺简化和加快计算机芯片的速度，同时降低它们的能源需求。该项目将在高度跨学科的量子材料科学领域为不同的研究生和本科生提供培训。一项与当地以本科为主的机构和湾区学校科学家(BASIS)方案合作的外联计划旨在扩大代表人数不足的少数族裔的参与。在这个项目中，费舍尔教授和他的学生将为合理的自下而上设计和合成一维极限中的强关联相奠定基础，一维极限是解锁奇异量子材料的关键。控制强关联低维材料中的量子电子态可能会开启一个低功率高频量子信息处理的新时代，其规模远远超出摩尔定律的预测。对描述非传统高温超导形式或实现原子细可切换导线的理论模型的实验验证，有望在降低计算机芯片日益增长的能源需求的同时，简化和加快计算机芯片的速度。Fischer教授和他的团队将利用他们在自下而上的合成、定制聚合技术以及先进的扫描隧道显微镜(STM)和光谱学(STS)方面的专业知识，合理地设计、制造和表征石墨烯纳米带中电子-电子相互作用产生的奇异量子现象。这些合成产品有望展示出远远超出母体2D石墨烯的新颖物理性质，如高度可调的带隙、光电发射、离域自旋态、共格磁性自旋链、对称性保护的拓扑态，甚至金属能带结构，所有这些都是由实际空间结构参数定制的，其中包括宽度、对称性、边缘终止和掺杂。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Professor Felix Fischer of the University of California, Berkeley is supported by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry to develop bottom-up synthesis, purification and investigation of one-dimensional graphene nanoribbon-based quantum materials. The synthetic products are tailored for specific ferromagnetic, metallic and superconducting properties that are relevant to next-generation electronics. Graphene nanoribbons are representatives of an emerging class of bottom-up synthesized designer quantum materials whose electronic structure can be tuned with atomic precision by chemical design. The manufactured materials will be the basis of stronger, yet more compact magnets, new schemes for low-power, portable electronic devices, quantum sensors, accelerated data processing systems, and more efficient energy generation, transduction, and conversion technologies. The project promises to streamline and accelerate computer chips while simultaneously reducing their energy demand. The project will provide training for a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students in the highly interdisciplinary field of quantum materials science. An outreach plan for collaboration with a local primarily undergraduate institution and the Bay Area Scientist in Schools (BASIS) program is geared towards broadening participation from underrepresented minorities. In this project, Professor Fischer and his students will lay the foundation for the rational bottom-up design and synthesis of strongly correlated phases in the 1D limit that holds the key to unlocking exotic quantum materials. Control of quantum electronic states in strongly correlated low-dimensional materials could ring in a new era of low-power high-frequency quantum information processing that scales far beyond the predictions of Moore’s law. The experimental validation of theoretical models that describe unconventional forms of high temperature superconductivity or the realization of atomically thin switchable wires holds the promise to streamline and accelerate computer chips while simultaneously reducing their growing energy demand. Professor Fischer and his team will leverage their expertise in bottom-up synthesis, custom polymerization techniques, and advanced scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) to rationally design, manufacture, and characterize the exotic quantum phenomena emerging form electron-electron interactions in graphene nanoribbons. The synthetic products are expected to exhibit novel physical properties that extend far beyond the parent 2D graphene, such as highly tunable band gaps, photoemission, delocalized spin-states, coherent magnetic spin-chains, symmetry protected topological states, and even metallic band structures, all tailored by real space structural parameters including among others width, symmetry, edge termination, and doping.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.