RUI: Magnetic and Superconducting Properties of Nickel Borocarbides

这个个人研究者奖为本科院校的研究人员提供了一个项目的支持，该项目旨在更好地理解新型金属的低温状态之间的竞争以及这些状态彼此共存的方式。主要的焦点是在稀土镍硼碳化物中超导性、磁性和重费米子行为之间的相互作用。研究了铀的超导性与电荷密度波态之间的竞争。热膨胀和磁致伸缩测量将是用来探测这种竞争的主要技术。电阻率和磁阻测量将提供额外的信息。这些新测量的结果将与Gruneisen分析中现有的比热测量结果相结合，以表征这些材料的能量尺度及其来源。这项研究将提高我们对金属的理解，同时培养来自洛杉矶大都会文科学院西方学院（Occidental College）的优秀本科生。从广义上讲，这个个人研究项目的目标是发现如何设计具有特定的、预先确定的性能的材料，例如用于电机和发电机的强力磁铁，或用于高效、经济的电力传输的高温超导体。当前的目标是更好地理解超导性如何与磁性和其他金属态相互作用。该项目将重点研究超导性和磁性共存的一系列化合物。超导性和磁性通常是相互排斥的，因此对这些材料的研究可以提供有关这些现象的重要信息。这项研究将提高我们对金属的理解，同时培养来自洛杉矶大都会文科学院西方学院（Occidental College）的本科生。这些学生将为读研和加入技术队伍做好充分的准备。

This individual investigator award provides support to a researcher at an undergraduate institution for a project that seeks a better understanding of the competition between the low temperature states of novel metals and the ways in which these states coexist with each other. The primary focus is on the interplay between superconductivity, magnetism, and heavy fermion behavior in the rare-earth nickel-borocarbides. The competition between superconductivity and the charge density wave state of alpha-uranium will also be studied. Thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements will be the primary techniques used to probe this competition. Resistivity and magnetoresistance measurements will provide additional information. The results of these new measurements will be combined with existing specific heat measurements in a Gruneisen analysis characterizing the energy scales of these materials and their origins. This research will advance our understanding of metals while training students drawn from a diverse pool of talented undergraduates at Occidental College, a liberal arts college in metropolitan Los Angeles. In the broadest sense, the goal of this individual investigator project is to discover how to design materials with specific, pre-determined properties, such as powerful magnets for motors and generators, or high-temperature superconductors for efficient, economical power transmission. The immediate goal is to better understand how superconductivity interacts with magnetism and other metallic states. The project will focus on a series of compounds in which superconductivity and magnetism co-exist. Superconductivity and magnetism are usually mutually exclusive so the study of such materials can provide important information about these phenomena. This research will advance our understanding of metals while training undergraduates drawn from a diverse pool of talented undergraduate students at Occidental College, a liberal arts college in metropolitan Los Angeles. These students will be well-prepared for graduate school and for joining the technical workforce.