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news release:
Researchers Study Superconductivity, Magnetism
in Novel Material
Fayetteville, AK, 1 March 2007: A
University of Arkansas
physics professor and his colleagues have created a nanoscale structure that
contains both magnetic and superconducting properties at the same time, and they
will be exploring the properties of this novel material this summer in
Switzerland.
Jacques Chakhalian and his colleagues at the Max
Planck Institute in Germany and the University of Grenoble and the National
Center for Scientific Research, both in France, have been awarded research time
and financial support over the next two years at Swiss Light Source at the Paul
Scherrer Institut - the most advanced synchrotron light source in the world. In
2006, they published a paper in Nature Physics documenting novel
properties at the interface between a superconductor, known as YBCO, and a
ferromagnet, known as LCMO. Their results showed an interplay between
ferromagnetism and superconductivity that had never been documented before.
"Typically, ferromagnetism destroys
superconductivity," Chakhalian said. The group's technique, which allows
scientists to combine these two properties in one thin-film superlattice, opens
up a new area of physics and paves the way for discovering more materials with
novel properties.
To create the lattice, the researchers take a
powdered pallet of the material and use a powerful ultraviolet laser to vaporize
the crystals and deposit them as a multilayer, ultra-thin film on a substrate.
This way they can create one atomic layer at a time.
"You can make it as thin as you want," Chakhalian
said. To find out more about the unique properties of the superconductor/ferromagnet
material, the research group wants to look at the interface between the two
materials. They plan to do this using the synchrotron at Swiss Light Source.
The synchrotron light is electromagnetic
radiation of varying wavelengths that can be tuned to a specific wavelength for
a particular experiment. The spectrum at Swiss Light Source varies from infrared
light to soft and hard X-rays. Unlike conventional X-rays, which diffuse through
space, the synchrotron light beams are sharply focused like a laser beam. This
will allow Chakhalian and his colleagues to study the magnetic and
superconducting properties at the interface of this nanoscale material.
"The main technical challenge is to focus the
beam of low energy photons into a spot the size of a few hundred microns,"
Chakhalian said. Only a few facilities in the world, like Swiss Light Source,
have the technology to create the "soft" X-rays necessary to analyze the
electronic properties of the superconductors and ferromagnets.
The team will conduct their experiment at Swiss
Light Source starting June 18. They will have seven days to complete the first
phase of the research. The award will allow them to return to use the
synchrotron again more than once over the next two years. In the meantime, they
will be busy working with the results of their first experiments. This project
provides a perfect training ground for University of Arkansas graduate students
who are interested in nanoscience and nanotechnology
"It takes a lot of intellectual effort to analyze
the data," Chakhalian said.
Chakhalian is an assistant professor of physics
in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to working
at the Swiss Light Source, he also works at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne
National Laboratories and the ANKA Synchrotron Light Source in Germany.
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