Ilya Esterlis received his PhD from Stanford University under the supervision of Steve Kivelson, where he investigated the optimal conditions for superconductivity in electron-phonon systems. He did a postdoc at Harvard University where he studied correlated electron phenomena in 2D semiconductor materials, as well as strange metal and non-Fermi liquids phases arising in the phase diagrams of high-Tc superconductors. He is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he continues to study novel electronic phenomena in 2D materials, as well as various problems associated with conventional and unconventional superconductors.

Abstract: The low-carrier density state of a 2D semiconductor is described in terms of the homogeneous two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), the ground state properties of which are determined by the electron density. Below a critical density, the electronic system freezes into a triangular lattice electron solid, or Wigner crystal. For experimentally relevant carrier concentrations the electron solid is highly quantum-mechanical, the significant overlap between localized electronic orbitals leading to frequent electron tunneling between Wigner crystal lattice sites. I will describe some new theoretical results exploring the consequences of these quantum effects in monolayer and bilayer 2DEG systems: In the monolayer case, increasing electron density may drive the Wigner crystal into a metallic charge-density wave state that can be understood as a quantum crystal with a finite concentration of itinerant ground-state defects, while in the bilayer case interlayer Coulomb interactions stabilize new lattice geometries in which ring-exchange processes lead to a variety of interesting magnetic ground states.

The seminar will be held on Friday 11/15, 3pm, WRP, in room B279 on the second floor of the Genomics Institute suite.