Proximity and Nonlocal Effects in Hybrid Nanostructures

The  Gross group has longstanding experience in the fabrication and characterization of complex hybrid nanosystems composed of normal metals (N) and correlated electron materials (e.g. superconductors (S), ferro- (F) and antiferromagnets (AF)). The main goal is the study of quantum phenomena in nanosystems with correlated electrons and spins. Their rich physics and broad application potential arises from the “proximity” of materials with different electronic/magnetic properties in multicomponent nanosystems. The proximity effect results in the generation of electronic correlations in the neighbouring materials. These correlations typically decay on a nm-scale and therefore can be studied and exploited in multicomponent hybrid nanosystems. A particular goal is the better understanding of quantum and correlation effects in such systems such as nonlocal phenomena in SF or NF structures (e.g. nonlocal resistance or drop in chemical potential), triplet correlations in SFS structures, or crossed Andreev reflection in FSF structures. Furthermore, special emphasis is put on applications of these phenomena in quantum devices with correlated electrons/spins such as ferromagnetic single electron transistors or novel spin-valve and spin-filter devices.