Hari Manoharan, PhD

Associate Professor of Physics

(650) 479-6266

What new science and technologies lurk at the smallest scales of condensed matter?  How does physics change in lower dimensions?  My experimental research group combines condensed matter physics, nanoscale science and technology, and atom manipulation to address these and related questions.  We focus on ultra-high resolution quantum imaging and probes of interesting electronic systems.  We also specialize in the science of atomic and molecular manipulation for atom-by-atom assembly of exotic nanostructures and artificial materials.

Education

PhD  and MA Princeton University

MS, Stanford University

BSE, Princeton University

Research Interests

Throughout history, humans have sought to expand their mastery of the material world.  The ability to manipulate matter has been continuously refined, extending to constructions of colossal size and extreme complexity.  Progress in the diametric direction of diminishing scale has proved increasingly vital to society.  Well-known contemporary examples include the microelectronic and biotechnology industries.  The efforts within these fields rely predominantly on new tools that extend control, and measurements, to progressively smaller length scales.

Instead of this “top-down” approach, what if one proceeds from the bottom and works up?  For the first time, we are poised to explore critical science starting from the basic building blocks of matter.  My research program seeks to apply the “bottom-up” approach of atomic and molecular manipulation to a variety of outstanding problems in science and technology.  The primary experimental apparatus for these investigations are custom-built low-temperature and high-magnetic-field scanning probe microscopes operating at the spatial limit.

Projects

  • Atomic and Molecular Manipulation
  • Atom-by-atom Nanoassembly and Single Quanta Probes
  • Single Atom Spintronics
  • Local Probes of Correlated Electrons in Reduced Dimensions
  • Emergent Ordering in Complex Materials
  • New Paradigms for Computation at the Spatial Limit
  • Atomic and Molecular Electronics
  • Graphene
  • Diamondoids
  • Topological Insulators and Metals
  • Dirac Materials and Dirac Fermions
  • Visualizing Quantum Phase and Topological Order

Publications

See Publications for Hari Manoharan, PhD