[12/19] The 7th WPI-AIMR Joint Seminar in FY2014

12/12/2014

The 7th WPI-AIMR Joint Seminar in FY2014

Title

Fullerene-based Molecular Materials: an Ongoing Voyage into the Unexpected

Speaker

Prof. Kosmas Prassides
(WPI-AIMR & ERATO Isobe Degenerate π-Integration, Tohoku University)

Date

December 19 (Fri.), 2014 16:00-17:00

Venue

Seminar Room, 2nd floor, WPI-AIMR Main Bldg.

Abstract

Superconductivity in classical elemental metals and intermetallics is clearly understood in terms of coupling between the electrons and lattice vibrations to produce Cooper pairs, which can move without electrical resistance. It is now well-established that in systems where the bands in which the electrons move are narrow−i.e. the energies associated with interelectron repulsion are comparable to the electronic bandwidth−, these correlation effects need to be taken into account in understanding the superconductivity mechanisms. These concepts were developed primarily in d-electron systems such as the cuprates where doping, with the associated structural disorder and distribution of metal charge states and d-electron counts, is required to produce superconductivity by suppressing magnetically ordered states. In addition, recent theoretical work indicates that the competition between correlation and delocalization energies is critically controlled by the orbital degeneracy, but this cannot be investigated in d-electron superconductors as their low-symmetry crystal structures remove the degeneracy. An ideal material for understanding the interactions producing superconductivity in structurally and chemically complex correlated electron systems should allow the isolation of the influence of purely electronic factors without the complications of disorder, structural transitions and low dimensionality, while maintaining the site symmetry required for orbital degeneracy in all competing electronic ground states. I will argue that the fullerenes occupy a unique position in terms of their ability to test and develop the most advanced aspects of the theoretical understanding of the ground states accessible to electrons in the presence of structural (lattice symmetry) and electronic (orbital degeneracy) factors that control their energies.

Contact

General Affairs Section, AIMR Administrative Office

TEL : +81-22-217-5922
E-MAIL : wpi-soumu@wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp