We will focus
on probing the physics, in diverse physical systems, at the nanometer
scale. Specifically this work will examine interactions and transport, of
both electron charge and spin, at the nanometer length scale to provide
insight into understanding the contribution of a single electron, spin, or a single vortex, to the bulk
properties of the system.This bottom-up perspective, in turn, allows us to develop a better
microscopic understanding of a wide variety of physical phenomena. One
other objective is to study the property of individual nanostructure
rather than ensembles, where ensemble averaging often makes it difficult
to observe physical properties unique to nanostructures. A key component
of this project is to develop scanned probe techniques in combination
with low noise transport measurements to study spatial inhomogeneity
within nanostructures; several studies and calculations indicate that inhomogeneity dictates, to large extent, the properties
of nanostructures. We expect that our measurements will provide insight
into various aspects of nanostructures.
Low
temperature techniques form a significant aspect of this, to enable
significant resolution in energy and also to explore phases that manifest
only at very low temperatures. Spectroscopy at low temperatures provides
detailed information regarding the excitations and the scanned probe
measurement will allows us to look into spatial variations of electronic
correlations, distribution of charge and other physical properties.
