Department of Condensed Matter Physics

Eli Zeldov, Head


The scientific activity of the department is mainly concentrated around the experimental and theoretical research in quantum solid state physics. It includes experimental research of mesoscopic physics, quantum Hall physics, high temperature superconductors, two and one dimensional superconductors, metal-insulator transition, carbon nanotubes, semiconductor nanowires,and study of material growth. The theoretical efforts concentrate on similar subjects with added work on disordered materials, cold atoms, and quantum optics.

The Braun Center for sub micron research is an integral part of the department. It is a modern and well equipped center, with growth (three MBE's) and characterization systems, which allows to conduct experiments on sub micron semiconductor structures under high magnetic filed, normal and high temperature superconductors, and nanowires made of carbon nanotubes and semiconductor nanowires.


I. Bar-Joseph

Optical spectroscopy of the two-dimensional electron gas in zero and strong magnetic fields.

Near field spectroscopy of semiconductor heterostructures.

Electron-hole complexes in quantum wells: Dynamics and steady state properties.


H. Beidenkopf

Topological phases of matter:

  1.  Topological insulators

  2.  Weak topological insulators

  3.  Topological superconductors

  4.  Crystalline topological Insulators

  5.  Helical nanowires

  6.  Scanning tunneling microscopy


A. Finkelstein

Effects of the electron-electron interaction in low dimensional and disordered systems.

Metal-insulator transition in 2D conductors.

Magnetic fluctuations in high - Tc superconductors.


Y. Gefen

Edge reconstruction and edge channels in the fractional quantum Hall effect and Topological Insulators.

Exotic excitations in the fractional quantum Hall effect and Topological Insulators.

Weak measurement, weak values and foundations of quantum mechanics.

Interferometry and dephasing with electronic and anyonic systems.

Low-dimensional interacting systems out of equilibrium.


M. Heiblum

Fractional charges and their fractional statistics
M. Heiblum, students/postdocs, D. Mahalu, V. Umansky

  1.  Charge and statistics of quasiparticles

  2.  Bunching of quasiparticles

  3.   quasiparticles and their behavior

  4.   shot noise measurements

Interference and dephasing of electrons
M. Heiblum, students/postdocs, D. Mahalu, V. Umansky

  1.  Phase measurements via a double path interferometer

  2.  controlled dephasing

  3.  Interferometers functioning in a high magnetic field, Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Neutral mode transport
M. Heiblum, students/postdocs, D. Mahalu, V. Umansky

  1.  downsteam and upstream neutral modes

  2.  hole conjugate states

  3.  even denomenator states

nanowires
M. Heiblum, andrey kritinin, anindya das, hadas shtrikman

  1.  InAs wires

  2.  ballistic transport

  3.  incorporation with superconductors


S. Ilani

Carbon nanoelectronics

Transport in ultra-clean carbon nanotubes

Nano-mechanics of carbon systems

Spin manipulation in carbon systems

Charge imaging on nanometer scales using scanning nanotube single electron transistors.

Two dimensional electron systems at the interface between oxides (LaAlO/SrTiO).


Y. Imry

Mesoscopic physics: persistent currents, classical and quantum fluctuations, quantum interference effects on transport, decoheherce.
Y. Imry, see below.

Effects of interaction on localization and on single-electron resonances. Many-electron effects and phase-shifts. Dephasing of Quantum interference in mesoscopics. Quantum noise and its detection. Effects of quantum fluctuations on nanosuperconductors.
Y. Imry, Y. Levinson, A. Aharony and E. Entin-Wohlman (TAU and BGU), Y. Ovadyahu and A. schiller (HU), P. Silvestrov (Leiden), M. Schechter and P, Stamp (UBC).


S. Levit

Atom-atom interactions in cold gasses and BEC

Resonant scattaring off photonic slabs

Non classical light.

Interaction of Squeezed Light with Atoms and Semiconductor Nanostructures

Full vector path integrals for light propagation in dielectrics.


Y. Oreg

Our research concentrates on a few generic examples where the electron-electron interaction plays an important role. In particular, we study systems where interaction and collective phenomena cannot be comprehended by the current paradigm theory of condensed matter metals (the Fermi-liquid theory). Among them are:

  1.  Majorana fermions in superconducting wires and topological superconductors

  2.  Quantum dots and the Kondo effect and the multi channel Kondo effect

  3.  Disorder superconductors and normal metal super-conducting junctions

  4.  Glassy systems

Luttinger liquids in one-dimensional systems such as:

  1.  carbon nano tube

  2.  edges of a quantum hall systems

  3.  edges of two dimensional topological insulator


D. Shahar

Experiments on materials at ultra low-temperatures.

Scanning tunneling experiments at ultra-low temperatures

Physics of electron's spin

Quantum phase transitions: General transport studies and mesoscopics of the metal-insulator, superconductor-insulator and other transitions.

Fractional and integer quantum Hall effect and related phenomena.


A. Stern

Fractionalized topological phases - how to construct them, how to measure them, and how to use them for topological quantum computation

Non-abelian electronic states - quantum Hall states, topological superconductors and Majorana fermions.

Quantum interference phenomena in the fractional Quantum Hall effect. Electronic transport in strong magnetic fields.

Low density two dimensional electronic systems.

One dimensional electronic systems - electronic transport in the presence of interactions.


E. Zeldov

Scanning nanoSQUID magnetic microscopy

Scanning thermal microscopy

High-temperature superconductors

Vortex matter phase transitions and vortex dynamics

Nano-structured superconductors

Magnetic phenomena in topological insulators

Magnetism at oxide interfaces

Magnetic nanoparticles and nanomagnetism