CONVENER

Robert Shekhter (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

CO-CONVENER

Junho Suh (KRISS, Korea)

MEMBERS

Amnon Aharony (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Ora Entin-Wohlman (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Leonid Gorelik (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden)

Mats Jonson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Chulki Kim (KIST, Korea)

Hee Chul Park (PCS IBS)

Danko Radić (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

OVERVIEW

The interplay between two fundamental electronic degrees of freedom, charge and spin, and the quantum orbital motion of electrons in mesoscopic nanodevices will be in focus of the proposed research program of the new ASG. Three lines of theoretical and experimental research are suggested. The first line includes the effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOI) in electric weak links on the electronic transport through such systems, focusing on the possibility to generate spin currents occurring due to the SOI dynamics of electrons. Spin-induced nanomechanics (spintro-mechanics) of both the magnetic and SOI-active weak links is the subject of the study along the second research line. Coulomb promotion of spintro-mechanics and electron number parity controlled thermoelectricity phenomena are suggested as new research directions. The third research line focuses on the electromechanical performance of the superconducting weak links. Quantum fluctuations of the electronic charge, accumulated on the movable part of the weak link, caused by the non-diagonal (in terms of the electronic number) superconducting ordering, change qualitatively the nanomechanics of the device offering a quantum coherent coupling between the nanomechanical and superconducting parts of the device. Possible nanodevice applications employing the mechanical degrees of freedom of normal metals, semiconductors, magnets and superconductors will be explored in close cooperation with the experimental groups at KRISS and KIST, Korea.

Topics include:

- Single electronics

- Coulomb blockade

- Spintronics

- Nanoelectromechanics

- Spin-orbit interaction

- Magnetic exchange interaction

- Superconducting weak links

- Josephson effect