Development of a Cluster-Deposition System for Nanoscale Magnetic Materials Research and Education

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9975909SellmyerThis grant will provide partial support for the development of a new cluster-deposition facility for the synthesis of a variety of magnetic nanostructures. The facility will be capable of producing nearly monodispersed clusters with mean sizes ranging from 200 to 15,000 atoms, and to deposit these clusters onto a substrate alone or in combination with different elements or alloys. The resulting films are expected to have nanostructures of different types including homogeneous amorphous or crystalline alloys or compounds, multilayers, and mesoscopic nanocomposites. The sizes of the clusters and their concentration can be varied over wide ranges, and the matrix materials of the nanocomposites can be chosen independently. The clusters themselves may have properties significantly different from bulk materials of the same composition. This allows excellent control of the properties of the films through those of the clusters and their interactions.The potential impact of these magnetic nanostructures on materials research and magnetictechnologies is significant. The production of independent or weakly interacting superparamagnetic particles is possible, thus paving the way for basic studies including spin-glass-like phase transitions. Novel nanoparticulate, high-anisotropy and high-coercivity films will be made with high potential to increase the areal density of magnetic-recording media by a factor of ten. New types of structures for the study of tunnel magnetoresistance and Coulomb blockade will be possible. There is an excellent chance that model exchange-coupled hard-soft permanent magnets will be achievable with world-record energy products.The new cluster-deposition system will simultaneously benefit the research and education of a large group of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as several postdoctoral research associates. The University of Nebraska has a large and diverse experimental and theoretical group in nanostructured magnetic materials that heretofore have been prepared by other techniques. The combination of this group and expertise in cluster-deposition instrumentation can be expected to significantly advance the field of nanomagnetism and its applications.%%%This is an ideal "integration of research and education" enterprise. It is expected it will have significant