“Cool microscopes to visualize electrons in quantum materials”, within CIVIS “Cups & Cakes” Web Seminars

On Wednesday, October 27, 2021, CIVIS organizes the webinar “Cool microscopes to visualize electrons in quantum materials”. Speaker will be Hermann Suderow, professor of condensed matter physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

The event, part of the “Cups & Cakes” Web Seminars, will take place on Microsoft Teams between 12:00-13:00 (CET).

As professor Hermann Suderow shows, while we are typing, lots of electrons are flowing in our computer to charge the battery, convert the click on my keyboard into an electrical signal, process this signal, send it to my screen and put words on it. We have a perception of electrons as single particles carrying an electric charge which form a current inside a solid, with which we can do lots of things. But, can we view such electrons? This is more difficult as it seems. A solid is made of electrons grouped around atoms, and of electrons shared among many atoms. With a scanning tunnelling microscope, we can view both such kinds of electrons and study their behaviour. Of topical interest are so-called quantum materials. These are solids in which electrons behave collectively, contrary to the materials in a usual computer, where electrons behave individually. Collective behaviour allows coherent manipulation of quantum states and leads to phenomena like superconductivity, where matter is moved in complete absence of dissipation.

During the webinar, professor Suderow will go through the history of cryogenic scanning tunnelling microscopy, explain relevant milestones and show recent results obtained by the most advanced microscopes, as for example the observation of a new highly correlated 2D electron system in an old and peculiar quantum material.

 This event is open to the public. Please contact Julie Hyzewicz for more information and to register.

CIVIS has been established as a University that reaches from the local level to the international dimension, focused on responding to local needs, contributing to regional development strategies and addressing global challenges. The development of Research and Innovation (R&I), as an integral component of its educational mission, has been part of the CIVIS mission from the very beginning.

It is in this perspective that RIS4CIVIS has been elaborated and now operates. The overall objective is to produce an integrated, long-term R&I Strategy that, will over time enable the constituent members of the CIVIS European University to seamlessly integrate their know-how, expertise and resources in the service of Research and Innovation that effectively addresses current and future societal challenges, at local, regional and international level.

As part of the activities developed to reach this objective, the Cups&Cakes meetings aim to create a discussion forum for researchers to connect and get an overview of what is happening in other partner universities on a specific topic. In the longer term, these exchanges also aim to foster exchanges and develop potential collaborations within the CIVIS Alliance.

These Cups&Cakes arescheduled for one hour and consist of two phases:

– A 40-minutes presentation of current research work chosen by the speaker (including a 5-minute introduction of general expertise and work in progress within the university on the topic of interest).

– Open discussion of about 20 minutes.

Each partner University, in turns, will have the opportunity to present to the CIVIS Community a subject of their research.

More details about the events organized within CIVIS “Cups & Cakes” Web Seminars and about registration for each of this events are available here.