Physics Colloquium: Correlated Electrons: The Dark Energy of Condensed Matter

Prof. Laura H. Greene is the President of the American Physical Society National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University and the Center for Emergent Superconductivity Florida State University

Abstract:

The nearly 80-year-old correlated electron problem remains largely unsolved; with one stunning success being BCS electron-phonon mediated “conventional” superconductivity. There are dozens of families of superconductors that are “unconventional” including the high-Tc cuprate, iron-based, and heavy fermion superconductors. Although these materials are disparate in many properties, some of their fundamental properties are strikingly similar, including their ubiquitous phase diagram in which the superconductivity emerges near a magnetic quantum phase transition, plus some intriguing, enigmatic electronic phases that arise in the non-superconducting states. A recent research direction is towards the fundamental understanding of these phases, in the anticipation to predictively design new higher-Tc, Jc, and more practical superconductors.

Event Organizer: Prof. Marek Karliner