U.S.-Japan Dissertation Enhancement in Advanced X-ray Scattering Techniques for Complex Oxides

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This award supports a Ph.D. student from the PI's lab to travel to the Spring-8 synchrotron radiation facility in Harima, Japan to participate in collaborative development of synchrotron x-ray scattering probes for complex oxide materials. The community of researchers developing advanced x-ray techniques is international and depends on cooperation between widely distributed groups. The award supports development and application of a series of new characterization techniques for complex oxides in collaboration with researchers at Spring-8, led by Drs. Osami Sakata and Shigeru Kimura. Over the past few years, the Spring-8 team has demonstrated an impressive number of innovations in x-ray scattering, including advances in techniques for determining the structure of epitaxial nanostructures and thin films. Commensurate advances in the design and understanding complex oxide materials have also occurred, creating an array of new opportunities. The collaboration with the Spring-8 group will probe two related phenomena in ferroic complex oxide thin films. The student and others on the U.S. team will use interface diffraction techniques to study the structure of the two opposite polarization states of epitaxial ferroelectric capacitors. A second effort will use related techniques to probe the magnetism of multiferroic complex oxide thin films. This collaboration is designed both to contribute immediately to the student's PhD thesis and to be an important technical and personal foundation for future work after the student's graduation. This collaboration will have broader impact in contributing to resolving longstanding scientific problems regarding the polarization and magnetism of complex oxide thin films and will form the basis for future work in the PI's group. In addition to disseminating the scientific results of our collaboration, The PI plans to communicate the other benefits of international collaboration in a variety of ways. Results from the collaboration will be incorporated into courses taught by the PI and into outreach activities involving all of the members of the PI's group.