The mission of our laboratory is to advance knowledge in the fields of Mesoscopic Physics and Nanophysics, while providing training and education of undergraduate and graduate students. The students become experts in nanofabrication, nanoelectronics, cryogenic techniques, numerical simulation, and analysis, which places them competitively in job markets in industry and academia.
In our typical research project, we have a big long-term goal. However, we are highly process oriented, and typically we discover many new phenomena and novel techniques while working on a long-term goal. The techniques sometimes involve nanostructure synthesizes using self-assembly. More often, however, we discover new measurement techniques of the properties of nanostructures, while the nanostructures are created by standard techniques or provided to us by Chemists or Material Scientists. In the development stage, students are thoroughly trained in nanotechnology, metal and oxide deposition, sensitive measurement techniques, and cryogenic techniques. More importantly, students learn out how to solve challenging problems.
In our research, we study nanomagnets, nano-ferro-electrics, metallic nanoparticles, and, strongly-disordered nanometals. We are very ambitious when selecting our long-term goals. The projects are not meant to be just incremental steps in the field. Each of our projects has an opportunity for a leap into the future, into a new way of thinking about how things work. The most difficult task is to figure out how to measure the properties of these nanostructures meaningfully. The techniques have to be chosen carefully, because the risks are high. Quite often, we discover something unexpected.
For example, in one project we study how electrons in nanomagnets interact with the magnetization. To this end, we have developed a method to measure magnetization reversal of a nanomagnet with unprecedented resolution – we can sense the reversal of only a few spins. This technique now allows us to explore domain wall motion, magnetic memory, and spin-orbit interaction in individual nanomagnets for the first time.
We are especially interested in low temperature properties of nanostructures. These properties are fascinating because they can only be explained by quantum physics. Energy level quantization and wave-like character of conduction electrons is crucial in their understanding. These quantum properties can lead to behaviors that are completely different from that in large systems. For example, spin-coherence time in metallic nanoparticles is up to seven-orders of magnitude longer that the spin-coherence time in large metals. As a result, spins in nanoparticles are candidate quantum bits in the fields of quantum information and computation.