The University of Connecticut 2152 Hillside Road Storrs, CT 06269-3046 DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS NEWS Volume I Issue 5 September, 2001 Plastics Made Conductive Alan Heeger, Katzenstein Distinguished Lecturer Friday, November 2, 2001 Professor Alan Heeger of the University of 1990, he founded the UNIAX Corporation and California, Santa Barbara, will present the 2001 served as its President until 1994. Since then, he Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture on Friday, has continued as Chief Scientist. He has been an November 2, 2001. Professor Heeger, along with Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow as well as a John Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, received Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. In 1973, he the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discov- was the Morris Loeb Visiting Lecturer in Physics at ery and development of conductive polymers. Harvard. He received the Oliver E. Buckley Prize Plastics can be made to conduct electricity. More for Condensed Matter Physics (1983), an Honorary than that, they can be made superconductive. One Degree from Université d’Etat a Mons, Belgium golden thread of twentieth century physics has (1992), the Balzan Prize for “Science of New been the understanding and development of new Materials” (1995) and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry materials and new mechanisms of high electrical (2000). conduction. Heeger’s work is a segment blended Prof. Heeger holds a large number of patents in seamlessly into the master thread. the area of functional polymeric materials. We are Alan J. Heeger was born in 1936 in Sioux City, used to thinking that plastics do not conduct elec- Iowa and received his B.S. with high distinction tricity. In the late 1970s Heeger, MacDiarmid and from the University of Nebraska. In 1961 he Shirakawa discovered that, with specific modifica- received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of tions, C-C bond changes allow charge carriers to California at Berkeley. He was a Professor from move from molecule to molecule, causing the 1967-1982 at the University of Pennsylvania and polymer to conduct. For example, they found such served as Director of the Laboratory for Research behavior in a thin film of polyacetylene, exposed to in the Structure of Matter (Univ. of Pennsylvania). iodine vapor. They have helped build their ground- From 1974-1982, he served as Acting Vice Provost breaking discoveries into a field of great fundamen- for Research. In 1982, he became Professor of tal and technological importance. Conducting Physics at the University of California, Santa polymers, and devices based upon them, offer Barbara. From 1987-1999, he was Director of the opportunities for low-cost processing routes for a Institute for Polymers and Organic Solids. In number of widely used applications. Vortices in Superconductors: An Unusual State of Matter Vortices (small circulating supercurrents), which thread Dr. Ling is presently an Assistant Professor of Physics a type of superconductor when placed in a magnetic field at Brown University; his Ph.D. is from UConn (1992); or while it is carrying a current, present both a technologi- Professor Joseph Budnick served as his major advisor. cal and a scientific challenge. Moving vortices create He received his M.S. in 1987 at the Institute of Metal resistance to current flow. Zero resistance occurs only Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his B.S. at when the material has enough flaws to pin the vortex Wuhan University. lattice. Fundamental studies focused on the arrangement Prof. Ling presented an introduction to the physics of of vortices and their transformation with temperature and vortices and described the factors affecting vortex field have led to the term “vortex matter” to describe this structure and pinning. Vortices are known to form their rich topic of study. This year we were fortunate to enjoy own lattice independent of the material’s structure. He two outstanding lectures on the dynamics and statics of then described a beautiful set of experiments which the vortex states in superconductors. clearly demonstrated the first direct structural evidence On March 2, 2001, Professor X. S. (Sean) Ling, that the vortex lattice can literally melt or freeze just like presented a physics colloquium describing some new ice or water. In his talk, he described the observation of breakthrough experiments in the study of vortex matter by classical features of a phase transition. Both supercool- the technique of inelastic neutron scattering. These ing of the liquid vortex phase and superheating of the studies were carried out at the National Institute for solid phase were observed in these experiments. This Standards and Technology (NIST) neutron reactor and work has been referred to “as a milestone contribution to were a collaboration between Dr. J. Lynn and Prof. Ling’s this field” in the Physical Review Focus early this year. group at Brown. George Crabtree Presents 2001 Charles A. Reynolds Distinguished Lecture Dr. George Crabtree of the Argonne tutelage. In 1982, he received the discovered superconductor with a National Laboratory presented the University of Chicago Award for transition temperature of 39K. This Charles A. Reynolds Distinguished Distinguished Performance at session attracted about 1000 partici- Lecture in Physics on April 4, 2001. Argonne National Lab. He has also pants and lasted until the early His title was “Phase Transitions in received awards from the Department morning hours. Vortex Matter.” of Energy for Outstanding Scientific In the Reynolds Lecture, Dr. Dr. Crabtree is a distinguished Accomplishments in Solid State Crabtree presented a general phase condensed matter physicist whose Physics in the years 1982, 1985, 1995 diagram for the vortex state which work has been well recognized and 1997. Dr. Crabtree is a Fellow of forms in High Tc (type II) supercon- internationally, as evidenced by his the American Physical Society and ductors at moderate magnetic fields large number of invitations to frontier Recipient of an R & D 100 Award in for temperatures up to Tc. The vortex science meetings. Dr. George 1996 for a “Magnetic Flux Imaging array forms a rich variety of con- Crabtree holds the rank of Senior System.” He serves as Editor of densed phases, including lattices, Physicist at Argonne National Physica C, an outstanding journal liquids and glass, depending on Laboratory and supervises a major devoted to publications of research in temperature and field. The complex- program focused on studies of the field of superconductivity. He ity of these condensed phases and the granular, superconducting and received his B.S. in Science Engi- transitions among them correspond to magnetic materials. Ten students neering (with Distinction) from those of ordinary matter, thus giving have received their Ph.D.s under his Northwestern University, M.S. from rise to the name “vortex matter.” His the University of Washington at talk included a beautiful discussion of “I think of science the way I think of Seattle and Ph.D. in Physics from the dynamic correlations in driven vortex democracy. It is filled with flaws until University of Illinois – Chicago phases. In these experiments an you look at any competing system. Circle. Dr. Crabtree has a distin- inhomogeneous current distribution is We are flexible and tolerant and in the guished record of scientific accom- created in a disk by injecting current ideal, which we never measure up to, plishments. at the center and removing it at the we are perfectly honest. That’s At the March 2001 Meeting of the circumference. In an axial applied because we go by the evidence as far American Physical Society in Seattle, magnetic field, the Lorentz force as we can gather, analyze and drives the vortex array around the understand it.” -David Markowitz, he and Professor J. Clarke co-chaired Emeritus Professor at UConn, Editor a so-called “Woodstock” evening disk. Various rotational regimes, of Physics News and APS New meeting at which the latest results including plastic, hydrodynamic, and England Section newsletter editor were presented on Studies of Super- elastic, are clearly seen along with (taken from the Fall 2000 edition) transitions among them. conductivity in MgB2, a newly The Norman Hascoe Lectures Phonon Physics Award to be Named for Paul Klemens on the Frontiers of Science In 1986, at The International Conference The Department of Physics has continued to play a leading on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter in role in a new lecture series funded by Mr. Norman Hascoe of Urbana, Illinois, Professor Paul Klemens Greenwich, Connecticut aimed at exciting undergraduates with scientific interests in frontier areas of science. Each lecture is received an award for excellent work in the open to the public and is followed by a reception and an field over many years. Now he will be informal panel discussion. In our third year, we had five honored by the committee organizing the outstanding lectures in the general field of nanoscale science: series of conferences by having the award, 1. Micah Dembo, Boston University, “Traction Force this year and in the future, named the Microscopy and the Mechanics of Fibroblast Migration” Klemens Award for outstanding contributions 2. Paul Chaikin, Princeton University, “Trillions of Quantum to phonon physics. Dots, Fingerprints, Nanolithography with Diblock Copoly- A communication from committee mers, and the Formation of Striped Patterns” member and previous awardee Lawrence 3. Richard Ernst, ETH-Zentrum, Zurich, Switzerland, “The Challis states “We feel this is a recognition of Future Role of NMR Spectroscopy in the Chemical/ Physical Sciences” your own particularly outstanding contribu- 4. Peter Zoller, University of Innsbruck, Austria, “The Age of tion.” At the Tenth International Conference Quantum Information” to be held at Dartmouth College later this 5. Scott Kuo, Johns Hopkins Univ. “Nano-Jitterbug: A New year, Paul will present the award to this Approach to Cell Mechanics during Active Motility” year’s winner, Professor Alexa Kaplyanskii Nanoscale science involves application of the concepts and of the A.