Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

2 p.m., Thursday, February 15, 2001
Room 1201, Physics Building

High Technology in Low Dimensions: Physics in Molecular Nanotubes

Eugene J. Mele

(Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract:  The discovery of carbon nanotubes has generated interest in many potential nanometer scale applications that exploit their unique physical  properties.  In this talk I will discuss interesting physics that arises from several new proposed approaches  for controlling electronic processes in tube-derived structures.  In the first, electronic excitations on nanotubes are coherently controlled through the nonlinear interaction of the tube with incident optical fields.  This approach, recently demonstrated for conventional bulk semiconductors, allows one to generate and control a photocurrent along the nanotube axis.  We apply a similar approach to the homologous BN nanotube to explore the physics of the ground state electrical polarization in a heteropolar tube.  Finally we discuss how the integration of a nanotube with an anisotropic dielectric provides a novel route to controlling its electrostatic environment and allows the formation of a conventional three dimensional band bending profile even in a low dimensional molecular heterostructure.

Host:  Ted Einstein


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