James P. Eisenstein | |
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| Born | (1952-05-15)May 15, 1952 (age 73) |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Bose–Einstein condensate of excitons |
| Awards | Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize(2007) Wolf Prize in Physics(2025) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Bell Laboratories California Institute of Technology |
James P. Eisenstein (born May 15, 1952) is an American physicist. He is currently the Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Emeritus, at theCalifornia Institute of Technology.[1] He received a share of the 2025Wolf Prize in Physics for his experimental research on strongly interacting two-dimensional electron systems. He co-discovered the 5/2 filling factor state of thefractional quantum Hall effect and demonstrated theBose–Einstein condensation ofexcitons in two dimensions.
Eisenstein received his AB degree fromOberlin College in 1974 and a PhD in physics from theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1980. Following a few years as an assistant professor of physics atWilliams College, Eisenstein became a member of the technical staff atBell Laboratories at Murray Hill, New Jersey in 1983. In 1996 Eisenstein accepted a professorship in physics at theCalifornia Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. In 2005, he became the Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Caltech.[1][2] Eisenstein assumed emeritus status in 2018 and suspended his experimental research program in 2021.
He has served on various National Research Council committees including the Solid State Sciences Committee and the Board on Physics and Astronomy. He was an associate editor of theAnnual Review of Condensed Matter Physics from 2014 to 2017.
Following doctoral research on the hydrodynamic properties of superfluid3-He,[3] at Bell Labs Eisenstein switched his focus to the experimental properties of two-dimensional electron systems in semiconductor heterostructures. At very low temperatures and high magnetic fields, such systems exhibit a host of exotic phenomena, notably the integer and fractionalquantum Hall effects.
The even-denominatorfractional quantum Hall state, at fillingv=5/2, is believed to possess quasiparticles with non-abelian braiding statistics,[4] a property key to proposed topological quantum computer architectures.[5] Eisenstein co-discovered the this state at filling factor 5/2, where the resistance depended on the direction, reminiscent of aliquid crystal.[6] This discovery allowed him to study of the correlated motion ofexcitons in 2D, demonstrating their ability to formBose–Einstein condensates.[6] For these experiments, he shared the 2025Wolf Prize in Physics withJainendra K. Jain andMoty Heiblum.[6]
The stripe and bubble phases[7][8] reveal that in the quantum regime point-like electrons can organize themselves into configurations[9] which resemble classical liquid crystals comprising complex asymmetric molecules.
Exciton condensation was originally theorized, in the 1960's, to occur in bulksemimetals in the absence of a magnetic field.[10][11][12] Surprisingly, the phenomenon was first detected in closely-spaced double layer 2D electron systems at high magnetic field. In effect, at low temperature electrons in one layer can bind onto the vacancies between electrons in the other layer. The condensed phase has numerous exotic properties.[13]
James Eisenstein: Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Emeritus
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