Photoelectric Effect: A Century of Scientific Discovery

Abstract

[evdate 2014-02-20] IAS Distinguished Lecture. Title from opening screen.

Co-sponsored by Department of Physics.

Abstract: Photoelectric effect, as formulated in his 1905 landmark paper, is among the most debated ideas of Albert Einstein. Despite its early controversy, photoelectric effect emerged as a pillar for the establishment of quantum mechanics, and has been an engine driving a century of discovery and innovation. In this talk, the speaker will discuss the development of photoemission as a many-body spectroscopy derived from photoelectric effect. The speaker will survey the advances in energy, momentum, spin and time resolution; and its match with frontier physics problems, in-situ materials synthesis and theoretical simulation. The speaker will showcase recent results from high temperature superconductors and topological insulators. In particular, he will address the issue of pseudogap and its intertwined relationship with superconductivity.

Prof Zhi-Xun Shen received in PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1989. He was the first Director of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, and the Chief Scientist of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He was also a Member and Vice Chair of the Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee of the US Department of Energy. He is currently the Paul Pigott Professor in Physical Sciences at Stanford.

Prof Shen’s main research interests lie in the area of condensed matter and materials physics, as well as the energy applications of materials and devices. He conducts fundamental and applied research on quantum matter. His primary interest is the physics of the “many”, where interactions among multiple constituencies give rise to novel properties not intrinsic to the individual components. His interest also includes ways to utilize the functionality of materials. He has more than 350 publications, an H citation index of 77, and six of his papers identified by the citation tracking algorithm of the Institute for Scientific Information as among the most cited recent papers in its periodic surveys. His works have been featured as covers of the most important physics journals - Physical Review Letters, Physics Today, Physics World, and Review of Modern Physics.

Prof Shen received numerous awards including the Kamerlingh Onne Prize, the E. O. Lawrence Award from the US Department of Energy, and the Oliver E. Buckley Prize from the American Physical Society, etc. He has been a co-inventor of numerous patents. The non-resonance microwave imaging technology invented in his group is seeing a range of applications in materials, and earned the Takeda Foundation Techno-Entrepreneurship Award. For his materials science work and co-invention of the photon enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) device concept, he is recognized as a Finalist for Energy Technology by World Technology Network in 2010.

Duration: 63 min.