Special Colloquium, April 23, 2004

Detection and Control of Broken Symmetries with Planar Tunneling Spectroscopy of High-Temperature Superconductors

Laura H. Greene

Swanlund Professor of Physics
Department of Physics and Fredrick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Planar tunneling spectroscopy is a powerful probes of electronic structure and was the technique used to prove the BCS theory of superconductors. For high-temperature superconductors, we have shown this technique to also provide information on the symmetrry of the superconducting order parameter. Novel junction fabrication techniques and systematic diagnostics allow the detection of three broken symmetries in these unconventional superconductors: Gauge, Reflection and Time-reversal.

1:30 p.m., Smith Laboratory, Room 1094