Scientific Opportunities: Nanoscience

Overview  |  Nanoelectronics  |  Nanomagnetics  |  Nanoscale Functional Materials  |  Nanoscale Strongly Correlated Systems  |  Polymer Nanocomposites  |  Biomimetic Devices

Nanoscale Strongly Correlated Systems

Could nano-engineered layer boundaries (indicated in red) induce a new kind of electron order in a material?

Strongly correlated electron systems occur when the interactions between electrons in a material (the Coulomb force) are too strong to be ignored. This is unlike semiconductors and most metals, for example, that are characterized by free electron systems in which the electrons' kinetic energy is much larger than the Coulomb force.

Strongly correlated electron systems, existing in transition metal oxides and rare-earth compounds, is a field that is presently untapped but holds great promise. These systems exhibit spontaneous charge, spin, and orbital correlations on the length scale from a few nanometers to tens of nanometers. Understanding these phenomena on the nanoscale is an outstanding challenges, and an area in which NSLS-II will have enormous impact.

New methods for artificially fabricating and controlling structures and correlations in these systems will play an important part in these efforts. For example, this might involve controlling the physical dimensions of the sample (see figure) or nanopatterning (a method of creating nanoscale features on material surfaces). Progress will depend on the availability of experimental probes that can quantitatively characterize structure, strain, composition, and magnetic order with nanometer scale resolution and high sensitivity. Using the high brightness of NSLS-II with advanced x-ray optics, it will be possible to measure these characteristics on a 10-nanometer length scale, and thus to directly probe the effects of applying boundary constraints or patterning-induced modulations.

Last Modified: March 4, 2008
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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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