Understanding and utilizing non-volatile properties of materials
Congratulations to Peter on receiving a 2500$ WCEE Summer Research and Internship Grant to spend time with our collaborators in Switzerland this summer doing second harmonic generation on magnetic and multiferroic oxides. This funding is provided by the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED).
Congratulations to Peter for receiving an Honorable mention for his NSF Graduate Research Proposal on High Entropy Oxides. Applicants receiving Honorable Mention are provided enhanced access to cyberinfrastructure resources, including supercomputing time, in support of research toward completion of the graduate program of study.
Betsy is a senior studying Materials Science Engineering and minoring in Multidisciplinary Design. She is a project lead on The Initiative, a team which designs heated bassinets for underweight infants in Ethiopia. Currently she assists with the characterization of entropy stabilized oxides and has previously worked on a capillary angiogenesis project in the CSET Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
When not logging impressive study marathons in the basement of the library, Betsy enjoys skiing, backpacking, and attempting to delicious food on a college budget.
New publication! – Neal Reynolds, Priyamvada Jadaun, John T. Heron, Colin L. Jermain, Jonathan Gibbons, Robyn Collette, R. A. Buhrman, Darrell G. Schlom and D. C. Ralph, “Spin-Hall Torques Generated by Rare-Earth (Lanthanide) Thin Films” Phys. Rev. B. 95, 064412 (2017).
Abstract:
We report an initial experimental survey of spin Hall torques generated by the rare-earth metals Gd, Dy, Ho, and Lu, along with comparisons to first-principles calculations of their spin Hall conductivities. Using spin torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurements and dc-biased ST-FMR, we estimate lower bounds for the spin Hall torque ratio, ξSH, of ≈0.04 for Gd, ≈0.05 for Dy, ≈0.14 for Ho, and ≈0.014 for Lu. The variations among these elements are qualitatively consistent with results from first principles [density-functional theory (DFT) in the local density approximation with a Hubbard-U correction]. The DFT calculations indicate that the spin Hall conductivity is enhanced by the presence of the partially filled f orbitals in Dy and Ho, which suggests a strategy to further strengthen the contribution of the f orbitals to the spin Hall effect by shifting the electron chemical potential.
Congratulations to Nguyen, who presented her poster “alpha-Cr2O3 Thin Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition” at the VEF fellows and scholars conference in Phoenix AZ.
Abstract:
Magnetoelectric materials have been of interest because of their potential for low-power spintronic devices using electric field switching. One possible candidate is antiferromagnetic α-Cr2O3, which possesses an uncompensated surface magnetization. Recent significant results of magnetoelectric switching are mostly done in bulk single crystal α-Cr2O3. In this work, we study the pulsed laser deposition of α-Cr2O3 on Al2O3 (0001) substrate in order to find the appropriate conditions for a smooth and high quality thin film for technological adoption. The heterostructure of Pt/α-Cr2O3/metal is deposited in order to study magnetic and magnetoelectric properties of α-Cr2O3.