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In this 48-minute lecture, explore how real-world semiconductors deviate from idealized periodic structures, examining disorder across multiple time and length scales. Learn how long-range static symmetry disorder creates unexpected spin domains in polycrystalline semiconductors, while short-range static disorder localizes charges but is often overshadowed by dynamic disorder from lattice fluctuations. Discover how this dynamic disorder establishes fundamental efficiency limits for semiconductor devices, with examples from both established and emerging materials. The presentation concludes by introducing a novel experimental approach for measuring dynamic disorder at native phonon timescales. This Simons Foundation talk challenges the conventional application of Bloch's theorem by revealing the complex reality of disorder in condensed matter systems.
