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Project leader: A. Morpurgo (UniGE)
Participating members: M. Büttiker (UniGE), L. Forró (EPFL), T. Giamarchi (UniGE), A. Morpurgo (UniGE), P. Paruch (UniGE), Ch. Renner (UniGE), M. Sigrist (ETHZ), J.-M. Triscone (UniGE), D. van der Marel (UniGE).

Summary

We will use electronic devices and nanostructures for the investigation of materials with novel electronic properties. The two main classes of materials addressed by the project are heterostructures of transition metal oxides and carbon-based materials (graphene, nanotubes, and organic semiconductors). The focus will be on phenomena that are not accessible experimentally in the bulk. Examples are electrostatically tunable superconducting junctions and SQUIDs in LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interfaces, interaction effects of Dirac electrons in graphene, and polaronic transport in organic field-effect transistors. The project has a significant theoretical component, which will aim both at analyzing specific devices studied experimentally, and at searching for new physical phenomena in devices based on correlated electron systems. The device oriented approach to the study of new materials has the potential to contribute to the development of future electronic applications, and aims at achieving the level of control characteristic of mesoscopic physics.