קולוקוויום בפיזיקה: Visualizing the Quantum Phases of Strongly Interacting Electrons

Abstract: 

When quantum mechanics and Coulomb repulsion are combined in a pristine solid, some of the most fascinating electronic phases in nature can emerge. Interactions between electrons can form correlated insulators, electronic liquids, and in extreme cases even quantum electronic solids. These phases are predicted to exhibit their most striking features in real-space, however, they are also extremely fragile, preventing their visualization with existing experimental tools. In this talk, I will describe recent technological breakthroughs that allow us to create extremely clean electronic devices based on carbon nanotubes. We utilize these devices as a powerful laboratory for studying quantum mechanics of electrons ‘on a wire’, and as a new type of a scanning probe, capable of imaging electrical charge with unprecedented sensitivity and minimal invasiveness. I will show how using such an imaging platform we were able to obtain the first images of the long-sought quantum crystal of electrons, to image the collective fluid flow of interacting electrons in graphene, and to unravel the parent state that underlies the physics of strongly interacting electrons in the recently discovered system of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene.

מארגן האירוע: ד"ר יאיר הרכבי