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| Name |
Awschalom, David D. |
| Location
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The University of Chicago |
| Primary Field
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Applied Physical Sciences |
| Secondary Field
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Physics |
 Election Citation
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Awschalom founded the field known as "spintronics." His research explores the dynamics of the electron, nuclear, and magnetic spins within a variety of engineering nanostructures. He has made fundamental discoveries in electron spin coherence and ultrafast electrical and optical manipulation of quantized spins. |
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Research Interests
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Professor Awschalom's research involves understanding and controlling the spins of individual electrons, nuclei, and photons for fundamental studies of quantum systems and their interactions amongst themselves and their environments. This includes exploring potential applications of quantum states in computing, sensing and communication. He develops a variety of time- and spatially-resolved measurement techniques to probe spin-dependent quantum dynamics in semiconductors, heterostructures, and molecular structures. These experiments revealed long-lived electron spin coherence in semiconductors, macroscopic transport of coherent spin states, electrical spin injection in semiconductors, ultrafast manipulation of electron and nuclear spins, engineered magnetic heterostructures, and the discovery of the spin-Hall effect. His temporally and spatially resolved experiments investigate the spin degrees of freedom in a wide variety of semiconductor heterostructures and nanometer-scale systems, ranging from II-VI diluted magnetic semiconductors to III-V ferromagnetic semiconductors to diamond, silicon carbide, and magnetic ion-doped molecules. Recently, he has created techniques to extend quantum coherent states in matter through electrical control of semiconductors and the creation of decoherence protected subspaces. These studies make spins attractive for the implementation of quantum information processing through the creation and control of single electron and nuclear spin coherence in both semiconductors and chemically assembled structures. |
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