CAREER: Achieving Tunable Nanomagnetism using Charge Defects and Strain

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TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis CAREER award supports theoretical and computation research, education, and outreach activities on magnetism in nanomaterials. The PI will investigate mechanisms that control magnetism at the nanoscale. For practical applications, nanostructures are often deposited on a substrate, and nanostructure-substrate interactions are known to affect the magnetic properties of the substrate. Very recently, it was observed that transition metal nanostructures deposited at defect sites such as vacancies in the substrate, become effectively charged, which leads to the modification of their electronic properties and enhanced catalytic activity. The PI will investigate the effects of nanostructure charging on their magnetic properties using methods based on Density Functional Theory. The PI aims to focus on ultrathin insulating films, such as copper nitride and sodium chloride, supported by metallic substrates. The first objective is to establish electronic and magnetic properties of ultrathin insulating films in the presence of various kinds of defects and to determine the stability of various charge states of the defects. The second objective is to determine the stability of various charge states of nanostructures deposited on these defect sites and, their effect on the nanostructure-substrate coupling and the magnetic properties of nanostructures. An aim of the research is to develop correlations between magnetic properties of nanostructures and their charge and the nanostructure-substrate coupling. This would contribute to enabling the design nanostructures with desired electronic and magnetic properties.This award also supports educational activities. Involving undergraduate students in research is the primary focus of the education component of this proposal. Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to take part in industrial internships and work with PI's industrial collaborators. Promoting science education at the secondary-school level is the next crucial component of this CAREER award. To achieve this goal, high-school student interns will be recruited during summer to work with the PI. The PI will also deliver talks on the role of computational physics in nanoscience and nanotechnology at local Boise schools and at the Discovery Center of Idaho located in Boise area. To promote enrollment of women undergraduates in sciences, meetings with women undergraduate students at Boise State will be organized periodically. Undergraduate students will develop awareness in materials modeling to discover and design new materials using theoretical and computational approaches.NONTECHNICAL SUMMARYThis CAREER award supports theoretical and computation research, education, and outreach activities on magnetism in nanomaterials. Continual miniaturization of devices has enabled many modern day technological advances from smart phones and tablets to high-density data storage on hard disks. The miniaturization of devices, however, has reached a point where further reduction in size requires studying materials at the nanoscale, that is, materials with a size some 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. Each atom in a nanomaterial can behave like a tiny magnet which can be manipulated to develop novel devices that are not only smaller in size but also consume less power. Creating novel spintronic devices largely depends on the ability to tailor the properties of materials at nanoscale. The PI aims to use computational tools to develop methods to tune or control the magnetic properties of materials at the. This research contributes to efforts to develop techniques for designing tailor-made nanomagnets and to accelerate the search for new magnetic materials with desired properties at nanoscale. This award also supports educational activities. Involving undergraduate students in research is the primary focus of the education component of this proposal. Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to take part in industrial internships and work with PI's industrial collaborators. Promoting science education at the secondary-school level is the next crucial component of this CAREER award. To achieve this goal, high-school student interns will be recruited during summer to work with the PI. The PI will also deliver talks on the role of computational physics in nanoscience and nanotechnology at local Boise schools and at the Discovery Center of Idaho located in Boise area. To promote enrollment of women undergraduates in sciences, meetings with women undergraduate students at Boise State will be organized periodically. Undergraduate students will develop awareness in materials modeling to discover and design new materials using theoretical and computational approaches.