Electronic Properties of Transition Metal Oxides and f-Electron Superconductors

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Technical: This individual investigator award supports experimental investigations on charge conduction and magnetic response in manganites and in the quantum critical region of high temperature superconductors and heavy electron superconductors, as well as on the proximity effect and spin injection in ferromagnetic/superconductor heterostructures. Magnetotransport, magnetization, and torque measurements over a wide range of temperature, magnetic field, and hydrostatic pressure will be employed for these studies on single crystals and heterostructures. The proposed research will significantly enhance our fundamental understanding of charge conduction in cuprates, f-electron superconductors, and manganites, and will also address issues related with the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism. Understanding the intrinsic electronic transport and magnetotransport mechanisms in these complex materials may be one of the key components in understanding of curious and potentially useful physical properties of these materials. More broadly, the results from these basic investigations may provide insight into appropriate doping schemes to facilitate applications of cuprates and manganites to electronic sensors and devices such as magnetic field sensors or even computer logic devices. The proposed work explores, in a novel way, a quantity of direct relevance to this potential utility: the magnetoconductivity. This highly interdisciplinary project will allow a wide-variety of researchers including graduate students, undergraduates, postdocs, and visitors to benefit from exposure to a diversity of important experimental techniques, and a variety of different physical systems and phenomena. The diversity of the expertise gained by the participants in this research program is a substantial advantage in today's knowledge based, technology driven economy, being beneficial to a future career in industry, government, or academia. The international collaborations with scientists in Romania, Spain, and China, needed to carry out parts of this project contribute to the nation's infrastructure for research and education. Non-Technical: This experimental research project concerns the unusual electrical and magnetic properties and behavior of several exotic materials formed in layers. The layers have properties ranging from magnetic to superconducting to magnetic/superconductor heterostructures. The proposed research will significantly enhance our fundamental understanding of charge conduction in new types of superconductors, and magnetic materials, and will also address issues related with the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism. Understanding the intrinsic electronic transport and magnetotransport mechanisms in these complex materials may be one of the key components in understanding of curious and potentially useful physical properties of these materials. More broadly, the results from these basic investigations may provide insight which will facilitate applications of high temperature superconductors and new magnetic materials to electronic sensors and devices such as magnetic field sensors or even computer logic devices. The project will contribute to the training of graduate students, undergraduates, postdocs, and visitors, who will be exposed to a diversity of experimental techniques, and a variety of different physical systems and phenomena In particular, this research involves minority-group graduate students who pursue thesis research and receive excellent training beneficial to their future career.