Measurements Platform for Materials at Multiple Extremes

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Electronic and magnetic materials are important to many current and likely future technologies e.g. superconductors for low energy power transmission and new magnets for sensors, information storage and future quantum computers. Exploration of properties at extremes of low (or high) temperature, high magnetic field and high pressure is important to discover new phenomena and to help understand current outstanding electronic and magnetic materials.To do this we propose to construct the Measurements Platform for Materials at Multiple Extremes (MPMME) as a unique facility for measurements of electronic and magnetic properties under multiple extremes of temperature (down to 300 mK or up to 1000 K) and magnetic field (up to 14 T), and also pressure (up to 100 GPa). It will be essential for supporting current and future research on materials varying from heavy fermion superconductors to transition metal oxides to molecular magnets. The proposed MPMME has two parts; 1. A commercial instrument for physical property measurements (heat capacity, magnetic susceptibility, electronic and thermal transport) at extremes of temperature and field. 2. High pressure capabilities for transport and magnetic measurements will be added through auxiliary equipment designed and built in CSEC (the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions) which has a strong record of instrumentation design for high-pressure research. New pressure cells will provide state-of-the-art pressure capabilities for the MPMME such as non-metallic cells for high frequency AC measurements, and a Megabar diamond-anvil cell for very high pressures.The discovery of new electronic and magnetic materials is a challenge requiring the combined skills of chemists, physicists, and engineers and the applicants have strong backgrounds in these different disciplines that will be combined to achieve our ambitious goal of discovering new materials with notable properties. UK and international collaborations will be strengthened by measurements made with the MPMME facility. It will also augment the training that we can provide to our students and PDRA's, and underpin equipment commercialisation and our outreach activities.