Hosted by: Cedomir Petrovic

Longer than 70 years solid state research has been focused on the study of materials with strong electron correlations due to their remarkable electronic and magnetic properties. In such systems, the average energy of the Coulomb interaction is greater or comparable to its kinetic energy and electrons tend to be localized. This localization is strong enough that electrons can be considered in the framework of the atomic approach. Interaction with itinerant electrons makes the interpretation of their physical properties more complicated. A typical example of a strongly-correlated system contains transition and rare earth (RE) elements. Here, I present both theoretical and experimental insight into the itinerant-localized electron interaction in rare-earth 122 silicides (RERh2Si2). The properties of RERh2Si2 change from the heavy-fermion behavior in YbRh2Si2 up to well-pronounced magnetic properties in EuRh2Si2 and GdRh2Si2. The competition between the Kondo effect and the magnetic RKKY interactions determines the properties of a large class of materials which have localized 4f magnetic moments coupled to itinerant valence electrons. The strong electron correlations, also well known in the transition metal oxides, rise up their remarkable functional and magnetic properties. It gives a route in a manipulation of electron, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom for novel electronic and spintronic devices based on oxide interfaces. An important role in the electronic and magnetic properties of this interface is played by oxygen vacancies which form a dichotomic electron system where strongly correlated localized electrons in the in-gap states (IGSs) coexist with less correlated ones constituting the mobile two-dimensional electron system (2DES). On the example of the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 we consider a complex band ordering in the dichotomic LAO/STO electron system that goes beyond the conventional eg vs t2g picture.