Nanoscale study of complex oxide & intemetallic materials

在过去的几十年里，人们在复杂的氧化物和金属间化合物材料中发现了大量新的电子有序现象。这些现象的范围从非传统的超导和巨磁电阻到磁电多铁性。近年来，纳米制造和纳米制造技术的进步，以及低温磁性仪器的发展，使得这些材料能够在极短的尺度上进行研究，具有可控的几何形状和极端的热力学条件。我建议的研究是将纳米制造、纳米探针和低温磁性技术结合起来应用于各种复杂氧化物和新型金属间化合物。这些材料包括：高温超导体YBa2Cu3O6+x和Tl掺杂铜酸盐；重费米子超导体CeCoIn5，PrOs4Sb12，CePt3Si；巨磁阻(CMR)化合物La0.7Ca0.3MnO3；以及多铁化合物BiFeO3，HoMnO3，TbMn2O5。外延薄膜和单晶样品，以及用激光烧蚀沉积和电子束光刻制备的纳米结构样品都将被研究。该研究方法在实验上将复杂材料中强关联电子的研究扩展到晶格长度。如果该研究成功，将使基于各种量子有序现象的新形式电子器件的技术创新成为可能。这种“量子”器件将在信号处理、信息存储以及量子计算方面具有巨大的应用潜力。

The past few decades have seen a wealth of novel electron-ordering phenomena discovered in complex oxide and intermetallic materials. These phenomena range from unconventional superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistance to magnetoelectric multiferroism. Recent advances in nanofabrication and nanoprobetechniques, together with progress in cryomagnetic instrumentation, have enabled these materials to be studiedat very short length scales with controlled geometries and under extreme thermodynamic conditions.My proposed research is to apply a combination of nanofabrication, nanoprobe and cryomagnetic techniques on various complex oxides and novel intermetallics. The materials include: the high-Tc superconductors YBa2Cu3O6+x and Tl-doped cuprates; the heavy-fermion superconductors CeCoIn5, PrOs4Sb12, CePt3Si; the colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) compound La0.7Ca0.3MnO3; and the multiferroic compounds BiFeO3, HoMnO3, TbMn2O5.Both epitaxial thin-film and single crystal samples will be studied, as well as nanostructured samples made using laser ablated deposition and electron beam lithography.  This research approach is progressive in that it experimentally extends the study of strongly-correlated electrons in complex materials to crystal-lattice length scales.If successful, the proposed research could enable technological innovations in new forms of electronic devices based on various quantum-ordered phenomena. Such "quantum" devices would have significant applicationpotentials in signal processing, information storage, as well as quantum computing.