CAREER: Magnetocaloric Effect in Metallic Nanostructures

技术概要：这项研究将通过制造和表征由磁性金属组成的新型纳米异质结构来促进对磁热效应的理解。几何限制和物理接近将被用来扰动和理解在相关相变的熵的结构-性质的关系。调查将包括成分梯度，有限尺寸效应，定制接口，和磁各向异性。人工结构材料的物理特性将通过与美国国家实验室合作提供的标准磁力测量和衍射技术以及同步加速器和中子探针等手段进行表征。这些研究将有助于设计具有增强熵特性的材料，这最终将与高效磁制冷相关。非技术性总结：通过在自然界中不存在的奇异纳米结构中制造标准材料，有可能制造具有优于单个材料的上级性能的新材料。这将通过使材料在纳米级接触来实现。物理性质将在美国国家实验室和/或用户机构使用同步加速器和中子散射技术进行表征。这些发现将与新兴的磁热学领域有关，该领域有可能使用环境友好的制冷剂开发极高效率的制冷。本科生和研究生的教学和培训将被整合到前沿的跨学科纳米磁学研究中。学生将通过在会议上传播工作，参与合作以及与美国国家实验室互动，建立未来导师，同事和雇主的网络。将制定科学文献学习模块，增加本科生？科学素养，使容易和早期过渡到活跃的研究实验室，并提高本科生的经验质量。USF的跨学科科学，技术和数学教育研究集群将有助于将该模块扩展到其他学科，以达到广泛的受众，从硬科学到健康科学。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This research will advance understanding of the magnetocaloric effect through the fabrication and characterization of novel nanoscale heterostructures composed of magnetic metals. Geometric confinement and physical proximity will be used to perturb and understand the structure-property relationships governing the entropy at relevant phase transitions. Investigations will include composition gradients, finite size effects, tailored interfaces, and magnetic anisotropies. Physical properties of the artificially structured materials will be characterized by means ranging from standard magnetometry and diffraction techniques to synchrotron and neutron probes available through collaborations with US National Laboratories. These studies will help enable the design of materials with enhanced entropic properties, which will ultimately be relevant for highly efficient magnetic refrigeration. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: By fabricating otherwise standard materials in exotic nanostructures that do not exist in nature, it is possible to make new materials with properties superior to those of the individual materials. This will be accomplished by bringing the materials in contact at the nanoscale. Physical properties will be characterized using synchrotron and neutron scattering techniques at US National Laboratories and/or user facilities. Discoveries will be relevant to the emerging field of magnetocalorics, which has the potential for developing extremely high efficiency refrigeration using environmentally friendly refrigerants. The teaching and training of undergraduate and graduate students will be integrated into cutting edge interdisciplinary nanomagnetism research. Students will develop a network of future mentors, colleagues, and employers by disseminating work at conferences, participating in collaborations, and interacting with US National Laboratories. A scientific literature learning module will be formulated to increase undergraduates? scientific literacy, enable an easy and early transition into active research labs, and increase the quality of the undergraduate experience. USF's interdisciplinary Science, Technology, and Mathematics Education research cluster will help extend this module to other disciplines in order to reach a broad audience with interests ranging from the hard sciences to the health sciences.