Dr. Ward Plummer:
ORNL Division of Condensed Matter Sciences;
UT Department of Physics and Astronomy
Like pool balls on a pool table, electrons in two-dimension surface materials can only move in one of two directions. Compared with the side-to side and up-and-down motion permitted by three dimensions, that's quite a limitation.
At this tiny scale, what one electron does affects every other electron in the system - any imperfection, any fluctuation has dramatic effects. As a result many strange, exotic and marvelous electrical and magnetic things can happen.
Experimental physicist Ward Plummer examines chemical and physical characteristics of two-dimensional metal and metal alloy surfaces from an atom's-eye point of view. His group uses scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and a variety of other experimental techniques to produce atomic-scale images of these materials. In particular, they explore the dramatic effect impurities and other fluctuations have on crystal structure and the formation of thin films on carefully prepared subsurfaces, from which the thin film will take its structural arrangement.
Plummer's images are vital to understanding the interaction and placement of atoms in a material. His research advances atom-by-atom tailoring of two-dimensional sensor and recording devices and other correlated-electron materials (materials with naturally linked electronic, magnetic and structural properties), providing nanodesigners the means to 'see' the materials they create.
His approach combines the research of theorists, synthesis and characterization experts. Together they work to verify theoretical predictions and choose the best combination and ordering of elements in the new nanomaterials, so important to communication technology of the 21st century.
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