Alumnus Michael Manfra awarded $1M research grant

February 19, 2013

Alumnus Michael Manfra (PhD 1999) and his team at Purdue University were awarded a $1M research grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop an ultrapure semiconductor capable of acheiving correlated states. The material, a precisely-formed gallium and arsenic lattice, traps electrons in quantum wells; when a magnetic field is applied at very low temperatures, the electrons synchronize and new patterns emerge. Manfra's team aims to reduce the impurities in the lattice that would disturb the correlated state of the electrons. Research on correlated states could have applications in quantum computing, and could even lead the way to new physics. More info is available at Purdue's website. Manfra is the William F. and Patty J. Miller Associate Professor of Physics at Purdue University.