What we do?
Condensed matter physics focuses on the states of matter obtained when individual constituents, primarily electrons and atoms, are subject to various interactions. This seemingly limited set of ingredients gives rise to countless states and phases. The exotic physical properties of these states, such as super-conductivity and fluidity magnetism and topological order, pose enigmatic conundrums. These are confronted at the Weizmann Institute of Science both theoretically and experimentally, very often in a joint collaborative effort.
The theoretical condensed matter group at the Weizmann institute of science uses analytical and numerical tools together with profound physical intuition to both resolve the riddles put forward by nature and experiment as well as predict and design new ones. Among the topics investigated are strongly correlated systems, quantum information, topological classification and mesoscopics.
The experimental condensed matter group at the institute utilizes a broad range of modern state of the art measurement techniques, while developing novel experimental technologies and probes. The department boasts an extensive collection of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques including multitude of scanning SQUID, tunneling, optical and charge microscopes side by side with global transport and conductance setups. These allow a comprehensive multi-disciplinary investigation of condensed matter systems including topological states of matter, correlated states, mesoscopics and nano-electronics, superconductivity, magnetism, quantum phase transitions and critical phenomena.
These are complemented with extensive in-house material research and synthesis capabilities. Many of these facilities are provided under the umbrella of the submicron research center. Among these several molecular beam epitaxy machines, novel materials lab, Van der Waals layering facility and a large scale clean room infrastructure equipped with advanced nanoscale fabrication capabilities.