Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The Trustees of Princeton University received a $687,997 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Materials Research under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030. This award funds experimental research investigating electron interaction physics in ultra-high-quality, quantum-confined semiconductor structures. The project focuses on probing and engineering topological order in exotic phases of matter within two-dimensional carrier systems featuring world-record material mobilities, thereby minimizing imperfections such as impurities and defects to isolate electron-electron interactions as the dominant physical factor.

The research deliverables include scientific publications and conference presentations communicating findings to specialized and general scientific communities, as well as training and education of graduate and undergraduate students in state-of-the-art fabrication, characterization, and physics of high-quality thin-film semiconductor structures. While the project addresses fundamental physics, the work has potential long-term applications for novel electronic devices and quantum computing systems whose operation depends on quantum and interaction phenomena. Performance of the research will occur at Princeton University's main campus in Princeton, New Jersey.