Special issue: Materials research

TL;DR: In the past few years, the focus of research in condensed-matter physics has shifted to exotic materials, novel structural arrangements, surfaces, interfaces and imperfect systems as discussed by the authors, which has already led to the discovery of new physics, such as the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Abstract: In the past few years, the focus of research in condensed‐matter physics has shifted to exotic materials, novel structural arrangements, surfaces, interfaces and imperfect systems. Advances leading to the fabrication of metal oxide–semiconductor devices and superlattice structures, for example, have made possible the study of quantum‐well structures and the discovery of the quantum Hall effect. After a decade of progress with this technology, combined with advances in computer‐controlled processing, we can now tailor composition and impurity profiles at an atomic level, monitor the effects that a fraction of a monolayer of atoms has on a surface and control the deposition of atoms layer by layer, capabilities that have already led to the discovery of new physics, such as the fractional quantum Hall effect. (See PHYSICS TODAY, July 1983, page 19.) Venkatesh Narayanamurti, in his article on page 24, captures the excitement of the strong interplay between basic physics and technology in condensed matter physics.