Research conducted in our group is primarily concerned with fundamental questions emerging when a macroscopic object is miniaturized. The physical properties of the resulting structures is the subject of a relatively new field refers to as "Mesoscopic" Physics. The origin of the word is Greek and it means "observing" (skopo) the "in between" (meso).
Mesoscopic systems are fundamentally non-macroscopic, since they are described by quantum mechanical laws instead of the familiar laws of the macro-world. On the other hand, a mesoscopic system is too big (consist of many atoms and contain many impurities) to be described by the traditional methods employed in the physics of individual atoms. Our objective is to close the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds and to develop models and theories that will help us to understand the interplay between quantum mechanics, interactions, and disorder which dictate the dynamics on the mesoscopic scale. Such theories will find immediate applications in building and manipulating nano-devices, such as small quantum boxes (quantum dots) with few electrons, atomic micro-traps etc.
Details on some of our recent and ongoing research projects can be found under Research.