Leonid Butov
University of California-San Diego, CA·Physics
When light hits a semiconductor, it can create an electron and a hole, a missing electron that behaves like a positive charge. These can bind into a quasi-particle called an exciton.
- Fields
Physics
Materials Science
- Topics
indirect excitons
interlayer excitons
Bose polarons
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2028
What they work on
- Study spin transport carried by indirect excitons, electron-hole pairs split across separate semiconductor layers, using optical measurements in layered heterostructures.
- Characterize excitonic Bose polarons, quasi-particles formed when direct excitons are immersed in a Bose gas of indirect excitons, through optical measurements.
- Create and compare indirect excitons in low-disorder GaAs heterostructures and in van der Waals heterostructures of atom-thin transition metal dichalcogenide layers with high exciton binding energies.
More about the research
Normally excitons vanish almost at once. In specially built layered semiconductor structures, however, the electron and hole sit in separate layers. These indirect excitons live much longer, travel long distances and can be cooled to ultralow temperatures. At such temperatures quantum effects take over, so these structures offer a controllable way to study quantum many-particle physics in a solid.
Why it matters
This is basic condensed matter physics. It adds understanding of how quantum gases of excitons behave and how they carry spin through layered semiconductors, and it adds to fundamental knowledge of the optical and electronic properties of materials. That knowledge could eventually inform future electronic and optical devices, but the grant names no specific application.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wanyi Nie
University at Buffalo, NY·Materials Science
Grow and characterize heterostructures of chiral hybrid perovskites and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides to study interlayer excitons, electron–hole pairs spanning the interface.
You Zhou
University of Maryland, MD·Physics·Early-career
Fabricate coupled bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors and test how their atomic structure and stacking affect the stability of Wigner crystals, ordered patterns of electrons.
Keji Lai
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Physics
Measure the effective permittivity of excitons in monolayer semiconductors using cryogenic laser-illuminated microwave impedance microscopy, a scanning probe that senses local electrical response under light.
The school
University of California-San Diego: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 637 research doctorates a year.
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