Press Release Press 2014 EPS-CMD Europhysics Prize

The Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society is proud to announce the award of the 2014

European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize to: Harold Y. Hwang, Jochen Mannhart and Jean-Marc Triscone “for the discovery and investigation of electron liquids at oxide interfaces".

The 2014 EPS Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize is awarded to Harold Y. Hwang, Jochen Mannhart and Jean-Marc Triscone for the discovery and About the Prize investigation of electron liquids at oxide interfaces. The Prize will be presented at a The EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is session of the 25th General Conference of the EPS Condensed Matter Division which one Europe’s most prestigious will take place in Paris from 24 to 29 August 2014. prizes in the field of condensed An outstanding challenge in condensed matter science has been to develop matter physics. It is awarded alternatives to conventional semiconductors for the future generations of electronic every 2 years in recognition of devices. Of particular interest for such devices are interfaces of transition metal recent work by one or more oxides having strongly correlated conduction electrons with highly tunable individuals for scientific properties. However, such interfaces have been exceptionally difficult to prepare excellence in the area of efficiently with the requisite degree of control. . The Prize has been awarded for the A major step forward in the preparation of oxide interfaces was achieved by Hwang first time in 1975. and co-workers employing a pulse laser deposition technique as an efficient alternative to molecular beam to grow highly controlled metallic interfaces About the EPS between lanthanum aluminate and . Importantly, quasi-two The European Physical Society dimensional conducting channels on strontium titanate interfaces with remarkably (EPS) was created in 1968 to high mobilities and carrier densities have been achieved. This has led to a rapid promote physics in Europe. The growth in the study of two dimensional electron liquids in oxide interfaces – the EPS now has around 4000 modern counterparts of two dimensional electron gases in conventional individual members, and brings semiconductors. together 42 national physical The next major step forward has been the discovery by the groups of Triscone and societies which themselves Mannhart of the occurrence of in the electron liquid between represent together over 130,000 lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate. Of particular significance has been physicists. their development of novel metal-oxide field-effect devices that enable them to Website: www.eps.org continuously tune via an applied gate voltage the carrier density across the metal- Contact and metal-superconductor transitions. The potential of these devices has David Lee, been demonstrated, for example, by the integration of nearly a million lanthanum EPS General Secretary aluminate and strontium titanate-based field effect transistors in a single chip. [email protected] The two dimensional electron liquids in oxide interfaces have been shown to exhibit numerous other phenomena including not only superconductivity, but also magnetism, Rashba spin-orbit coupling and pseudogap phenomena all of which are tunable via voltage gating. This marks the beginning of a new era in the field of quantum electronic devices.

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Biographies of the 2014 EPS-CMD Europhysics Prize Laureates Release Press

Professor Harold Y. Hwang

Harold Y. Hwang was born in Pasadena, USA, in 1970 and received his PhD in 1997 from Princeton University. After few years in Bell Laboratories where he performed material physics research, he became professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He eventually returned to the USA in order to work for Stanford University and for the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Since 2011, he is Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Material and Energy Sciences (SIMES). His research focuses on probing correlated electrons at artificial interfaces and in confined systems that lead to novel devices based on interface states in oxides, He also studies atomic scale synthesis and the control of hetero-structures as well as low-dimensional superconductivity.

Professor Jochen Mannhart

Jochen Mannhart was born in Metzingen, Germany, in 1960 and received his PhD in 1987 from the University of Tübingen. He worked at the IBM laboratories both in USA and Switzerland. From 1996 to 2011, and led the Chair of Experimental Physics VI of the University of Augsburg. Since 2011, he is a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. His research focuses on modern solid-state physics, such as the metal oxide field effect transistors. He is an expert at producing and studying specific interfaces in complex oxides. He studies the grain boundaries in superconductors by using bicrystal technology, which leads to new techniques for optimizing cables and electronic components from high- temperature superconductors.

Professor Jean-Marc Triscone Jean-Marc Triscone was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1959 and received his PhD in 1987 from the University of Geneva. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Geneva and spent time at Stanford University in the 1990s. He was Director of the Condensed Matter Physics Department in Geneva for 7 years and became Deputy Director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence on Materials with Novel Electronic Properties (MaNEP) in 2001. Since 2007, he is the Dean of the Faculty of Science. His current research focuses on oxide heterostructures and oxide interface physics and engineering based on superconductors, dielectric, ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials.

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