Session J55: Invited Session: Buckley / McGroddy / Adler / IUPAP YSP/ Nicholson Prize Session

Oliver E. Buckley Prize: Graphene and Beyond

Graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite, has been provided physicists opportunities to explore an interesting analogy to the relativistic quantum mechanics. The unique electronic band structure of graphene lattice yields a linear energy dispersion relation where the Fermi velocity replaces the role of the speed of light. The exotic quantum transport behavior discovered in these materials including unusual half-integer, fractional and fractal quantum Hall effect owing to approximate SU(4) symmetry from spin and valley spin degree of freedom combined with the quasi relativistic dispersion relation. In this presentation I will discuss the exotic quantum transport behavior discovered in graphene and its nanostructures. In addition, I will discuss the new type of material classes based on 2-dimensional van der Waal materials and their heterostructures extending the graphene based research into quasi 3-dimensional systems.   

James C. McGroddy Prize: Piezotronics of ZnO Nanomaterials

Piezoelectricity, a phenomenon known for centuries, is an effect that is about the production of electrical potential in a substance as the pressure on it changes. Wurtzite structures such as ZnO, GaN, InN and ZnS, due to the polarization of ions in a crystal that has non-central symmetry, a piezoelectric potential (\textit{piezopotential}) is created in the crystal by applying a stress. The effect of piezopotential to the transport behavior of charge carriers is significant due to their multiple functionalities of piezoelectricity, semiconductor and photon excitation. By utilizing the advantages offered by these properties, a few new fields have been created. Electronics fabricated by using inner-crystal piezopotential as a ``gate'' voltage to tune/control the charge transport behavior is named \textit{piezotronics}, with applications in strain/force/pressure triggered/controlled electronic devices, sensors and logic units. \textit{Piezo-phototronic effect} is a result of three-way coupling among piezoelectricity, photonic excitation and semiconductor transport, which allows tuning and controlling of electro-optical processes by strain induced piezopotential. The objective of this talk is to introduce the fundamentals of piezotronics and piezo-phototronics and to give an updated progress about their applications in energy science (LED, solar) and sensors (photon detector and human-CMOS interfacing).\\[4pt] [1] W.Z. Wu, X.N. Wen, Z.L. Wang ``Pixel-addressable matrix of vertical-nanowire piezotronic transistors for active/adaptive tactile imaging,'' Science, 340 (2013) 952-957.\\[0pt] [2] C.F. Pan, L. Dong, G. Zhu, S. Niu, R.M. Yu, Q. Yang, Y. Liu, Z.L. Wang* ``Micrometer-resolution electroluminescence parallel-imaging of pressure distribution using piezoelectric nanowire-LED array,'' Nature Photonics, 7 (2013) 752-758.\\[0pt] [3] Z.L. Wang ``Piezopotential Gated Nanowire Devices: Piezotronics and Piezo-phototronics,'' Nano Today, 5 (2010) 540-552.   

David Adler Lectureship Award: A Chance to Grow

Having a chance to grow has been a vital, key, aspect to my research career. A successful condensed matter, new materials group thrives when it can have multiple make-measure-think cycles running in parallel and series. The ability to explore phase space and design, discover and grow new compounds is the starting point for many research projects and, sometimes, new fields. In this talk I want to provide an overview of several of the motivations that can lead to sample growth and also provide some examples of how new materials can lead to the intellectual / technical growth of a group as well. Examples will be drawn, as time allows, from work on magnetic, non-magnetic, low-Tc, and high Tc superconductors as well as heavy Fermions, spin-glasses and quasicrystals.   

IUPAP Young Scientist Prize: Neutron scattering in magnetism

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Dwight Nicholson Medal Lecture: Science and Society

I will present some background as to the current ``scientific state'' of our society and some ideas of how we got into the fix we are in. I will then describe The Physics Force a program we developed to popularize physics. It has proven to be a very successful and entertaining outreach program of the College of Science and Engineering in the University of Minnesota developed to make science exciting and fun for students of all ages, from 6 to 106. The Force performed variations of The Physics Circus, our most popular show, at Disney's Epcot Center, parts of it were shown on Newton's Apple and several of us have performed demonstrations on the Knoff-Hoff Show, a very successful German T.V. science program. The goal of The Physics Force is to show students and the public Science is Fun, Science is Interesting, and Science is Understandable. By all measures we have available, we are extremely successful in reaching our goals. In the last three year cycle of our University support about 110,000 residents of Minnesota (or about 2{\%} of the total population) saw a Physics Force performance; over the last decade the total is around 250,000!