Study of charge glass induced by geometrical frustration

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H05459
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Condensed matter physics II
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Kagawa Fumitaka 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 創発物性科学研究センター, ユニットリーダー (30598983)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 強相関電子 / 非平衡 / 急冷 / 電荷ガラス / 相変化メモリ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When rapidly cooled, liquids are frozen into a glass, in which atoms are randomly arranged. Recently, similar phenomena have been discovered for electrons in solids: when slowly cooled, electrons are arranged periodically in the atomic crystalline lattice, whereas, when rapidly cooled, electrons are frozen randomly and electronic glass appears. In this research project, we have found that the electronic crystalline and glassy states can be switched into the other by applying an electronic or optical pulse, in a non-volatile and reversible manner. Furthermore, this guiding principle is turned out to be useful even for magnets, thus establishing a designing principle for novel non-volatile phase change memories.

Free Research Field

物性物理