Nanoscale physics

我的研究项目旨在对纳米结构的物理学有一个基本的了解，纳米结构系统的尺寸范围从大约一纳米到几百纳米。纳米结构具有不同于单个原子和宏观日常物体的特性。它们在从信息处理到医学等应用中的重要性已得到广泛认可。这里提出的研究将有几个重点：我们将发展通过单分子磁体传导电荷和自旋的理论，这可能会在极高密度的磁存储器或量子信息处理中找到应用。最近已经开始了将这种单个分子插入电路的实验，我们提出的研究旨在从基本层面上从理论上理解这种系统的行为。我们也将继续我们的理论研究，通过纳米级蛋白质片段接触金属电极在水电解质导电。这项理论工作将探讨不同种类的蛋白质片段在受到电化学门控时如何传导电流，以及电子与分子振动之间的相互作用对电流传导的影响。这项基础研究可能最终导致实现实用的基于蛋白质的生物纳米电子器件。我们也将发展其他分子电子系统的量子输运理论。我们也将发展石墨烯纳米带的导电理论，即几纳米宽、单原子层厚的碳原子带。我们将重点关注它们的量子输运性质如何受到吸附化学物质和其他缺陷的影响，以及由电子-电子相互作用引起的许多体效应的影响。这种石墨烯纳米结构的性质目前引起了人们极大的兴趣，对其理解的提高可能会导致实际应用。因此，所有提议的研究都有望实现对新型纳米级系统的更好的理论理解，并可能促进有潜力造福加拿大的新技术的创造。

My research program is directed at obtaining a fundamental understanding of the physics of nanostructures, systems with dimensions in the range from about a nanometer to a few hundred nanometers. Nanostructures have properties that differ from those of individual atoms and from those of macroscopic everyday objects. Their importance for applications ranging from information processing to medicine is widely recognized. The research proposed here will have a number of foci: We will develop theories of the conduction of electric charge and spin through single-molecule magnets that may find applications as extremely high density magnetic memories or in quantum information processing. Experiments have begun recently inserting individual molecules of this kind into electric circuits and our proposed research is aimed at understanding the behavior of such systems theoretically at a fundamental level. We will also continue our theoretical studies of electrical conduction through nanoscale protein fragments contacted with metal electrodes in aqueous electrolytes. This theoretical work will explore how different kinds of protein fragments conduct electric current when subjected to electrochemical gating and the effect on this of interactions between electrons and molecular vibrations. This fundamental research may eventually lead to the realization of practical protein-based bio-nanoelectronic devices. We will also develop theories of quantum transport in other molecular electronic systems. We will also develop theories of electrical conduction through graphene nanoribbons, i.e., ribbons of carbon atoms several nanometers wide and a single atomic layer thick. We will focus on how their quantum transport properties are affected by adsorbed chemical species and other defects, and by many body effects arising from electron-electron interactions. The properties of such graphene nanostructures are at present of great fundamental interest and improved understanding may lead to practical applications. Thus all of the proposed research is expected to achieve a better theoretical understanding of novel nanoscale systems and may facilitate the creation of new technologies with potential to benefit Canada.