For many different layered compounds, atomically thin crystals of outstanding electronic quality are currently produced by exfoliation of bulk material. Concomitant developments in the manipulation of these crystals is enabling the realization of sophisticated heteorstructures controlled at the atomic scale, that disclose fantastic opportunities for fundamental physics, with long-term potential for technology. I will illustrate developments in this research area with examples taken from work done on my group at the University of Geneva, including gate-induced superconductivity, magnetic tunnel junctions, and van der Waals heterostructures.

---

Bio

Alberto Morpurgo's interests include in exploring the (opto)electronic properties of new materials by performing transport measurements on nano-fabricated devices. He has been working on a broad variety of systems, including III-V semiconducting heterostructures, superconductors, carbon nanotubes, organic semiconductors, graphene and many other 2D materials. He received his PhD from the University of Groningen in 1998, and was postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University for the next two years. After spending nearly nine years at Delft University, he joined the University of Geneva in 2008 as full professor. He received the Miedema prize in 2000 for the best Dutch PhD thesis in solid state physics and was VICI laureate in 2006. He is currently member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation.