Thresholds of Dimensionality in Physical Systems
Submission Type
Event
Faculty Advisor
Gabriel Spalding
Expected Graduation Date
2022
Location
Center for Natural Sciences
Start Date
4-4-2020 2:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2020 3:00 PM
Disciplines
Education | Physics
Abstract
Electrical resistance of a wire is normally proportional to the wire length and inversely proportional to cross-sectional area, but as the diameter reaches the nanoscale such classical behaviors break down, and conductance can only come in integer multiples of a value set by fundamental constants alone, in a manner that can be used to argue both for the wave nature of electrons and that these wires have become, physically, one dimensional. Yet if the length of a nanowire is also reduced to the nanoscale, the electron should become localized (particle-like), and the system becomes zero dimensional. This work aims to tune the degree of isolation, e.g., the degree of coupling to external leads, in systems of reduced dimensionality, with the goal of identifying thresholds to accessing higher physical dimensions.
Thresholds of Dimensionality in Physical Systems
Center for Natural Sciences
Electrical resistance of a wire is normally proportional to the wire length and inversely proportional to cross-sectional area, but as the diameter reaches the nanoscale such classical behaviors break down, and conductance can only come in integer multiples of a value set by fundamental constants alone, in a manner that can be used to argue both for the wave nature of electrons and that these wires have become, physically, one dimensional. Yet if the length of a nanowire is also reduced to the nanoscale, the electron should become localized (particle-like), and the system becomes zero dimensional. This work aims to tune the degree of isolation, e.g., the degree of coupling to external leads, in systems of reduced dimensionality, with the goal of identifying thresholds to accessing higher physical dimensions.