Department of Physics Logo
Faculty

Faculty


Duke Physics

News and
Current Events

People of the
Department

Research
Programs

Undergraduate
Academics

Graduate
Academics

Departmental
Computing

Course Pages

Resources


Duke University

Duke White
Pages

Math-Physics
Library


Altavista

    Harold U. Baranger

    Contents of this home page:

    General Information

    • Title: Professor of Physics
    • Address: Department of Physics, Duke University, Box 90305, Durham, NC 27708-0305, USA
    • Email: baranger@phy.duke.edu
    • Phone: (919) 660-2598
    • Fax:      (919) 668-0654  or  (919) 660-2525
    • Office: 051 Physics
    • Research Area:  Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
    • Education: Ph.D., Physics Department, Cornell University, 1986
    • The Group:

    • Gonzalo Usaj (post-doc)..................quantum dots and spintronics
      Hong Jiang (student)........................DFT of real quantum dots
      Serguei Vorojtsov (student).............effects of dot/lead coupling
      Anand Priyadarshee (student)........correlations investigated using QMC

    Research Description (August 2001)

    Overview: Interactions and Interference in Nanosystems 

    The interplay of electron-electron interactions and quantum interference has been a central theme in condensed matter physics over the last 40 years. This interplay plays a role in, for instance, dirty superconductors, localization of electrons, density-functional theory, the quantum Hall effect, multi-impurity many-body effects, heavy-fermion superconductivity, and various metal-insulator transitions. In mesoscopic physics--by which I mean the study of quantum coherent phenomena in solids on length scales much larger than single atoms--interactions have been largely neglected over the last 15 years of intensive study. This has been justified because of, first, the rich physics of non-interacting particles that was uncovered, and, second, the use of open structures made from relatively simple materials in which interaction effects were not expected to be crucial. However, as the field of mesoscopic physics turns to ever smaller structures of a wider variety of materials--thus becoming an important part of the larger area of Nanoscience--the interplay of interactions and interference has come to the fore in this area of condensed matter physics as well. 

    Conceptually, the main interest in this topic is the experimental control over and variety of many-body physics that nanosystems provide. The coupling between the nanosystem and the outside world can be tuned, the density of electrons can be changed, the form of the interaction can be somewhat modified, and by changing materials the relative strength of the different terms can be changed. Perhaps the most spectacular examples of this control is the recently observed Kondo effect in quantum dots and the as yet unexplained metal-insulator transition in two dimensions. Another particularly important type of control, is the ability to change size, from a few electrons to thousands, and thus the ability to study not only atomic-like effects but also the properties of large numbers of interacting particles. 

    On the other hand from a practical viewpoint, there are several aspects of this type of nanophysics which are interesting for potential avant-garde applications. First, the Coulomb blockade is the basis for the single electron transistor (SET) which has been proposed as a possible post-silicon technology. There are severe problems with reproducibility and control, however, which require smaller more uniform systems and a detailed understanding of the physics. My goal, then, is to understand how one might make SET's in molecular materials containing chemically defined ``grains''. Second, the combination of magnetic and electronic properties is a very active area with regard to both storage and functional devices--a topic dubbed ``spintronics''. While bulk and two-dimensional systems have been intensively investigated, nanostructures needed for high-density applications are only beginning to be studied. I would like to understand what controls the magnitude and character of spintronic effects at the nanoscale with an eye towards possible device innovation. 

    Specific Topics 

    My research interests at this time (8/01) are concentrated on four topics in this general area of interactions and interference in nanosystems.  

    Quantum Dots-- Several aspects of experiments on the Coulomb blockade in quantum dots remain unexplained. The most intriguing is the observed distribution of spacings between the peaks in the conductance as a function of gate voltage. This is basically a measure of the compressibility of the dot--the change in the ground-state energy as electrons are added. The experimental distribution is broader than theoretical expectations and lacks spin structure. We are approaching this problem using both analytical and numerical methods. Our analytical approach is to combine a random matrix decription of the single particle properties with a method developed in nuclear physics for adding residual interaction effects to mean-field potential known as the Strutinsky method. These analytical results will be compared to density functional theory (DFT) results. 
    [with D. Ullmo (LPTMS, Orsay France) and W. Yang (Duke Chemistry)] 

    Magnetic Nanoparticles --The spin properties of magnetic nanoparticles are a fascinating context in which to study interaction and interference effects--exchange, correlation, and spin-orbit interactions all play an important role. We are calculating the tunneling magnetoresistance for nanoparticles of various types using simple models. The possible use of density functional theory techniques for these issues is being evaluated. 
    [with G. Usaj (post-doc) and W. Yang (Duke Chemistry)] 

    Correlations: From Single Particle to Many--We propose to investigate interaction effects at several different scales. First, at the smallest scale, several correlation effects seem more important for experiments than expected--the formation of a Wigner crystal at the edge of an electron gas, and a metal-insulator transition in two-dimensions, for instance. We plan to address these issues as far as possible with the recently developed cluster quantum monte carlo (QMC) techniques. Second, at the scale of a few nano-systems, the interaction among particles leads to, for instance, entangled states crucial for quantum computing. These can be studied with full DFT techniques. Finally, it is critical to see how these effects scale into the many nanoparticle limit. Using a simplified DFT technique developed recently by W. Yang, we plan to address this issue in carbon nanotube systems.
    [with S. Chandrasekharan (Duke) and W. Yang (Duke Chemistry)]

    New Types of Nanostructures: Self-Assembly--Nanoscience is a field in transition. A set of systems and problems has been extensively studied and the field is greatly expanding its view as it turns to other issues. In particular, the rapid development of new synthesis techniques for creating nanostructures, such as quantum dot growth by self-assembly or DNA-assisted assembly, is opening up fundamentally new types of structures. I am interested in studying the electronic and transport properties of these new structures as they become available.
    [with G. Finkelstein (Duke)]
     

    Teaching


Last modified: 30-Sep-01
baranger@phy.duke.edu