U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Metallic Superlattices with Artificial Superstructures

该奖项将支持亚利桑那大学物理系Charles M Falco教授和日本京都大学化学研究所Teruya Shinco教授之间为期两年的合作研究项目。该项目将涉及对由金属元素组成的人工多层膜的几个有趣的物理性质的实验研究。人工多层膜是自然界中不存在的新材料。因此，这些材料表现出许多不寻常的和潜在有用的物理现象，包括例如磁激发、垂直磁各向异性、维度交叉效应和不寻常的磁光性质。需要研究的特殊物理性质包括超薄磁层的垂直磁化强度，铁磁多层膜的巨磁电阻，以及外延多层膜的晶格动力学和弹性性质。亚利桑那州和京都提供的各种技术将用于表征这些材料，包括X射线衍射、布里渊光散射、超导测量和各种表面科学探测器。材料本身将通过使用真空沉积和溅射技术交替沉积两种元素来制备。美国和日本科学家的专业知识是互补的。法尔科教授是薄膜和超晶格的结构和电子性质方面的专家，而新津教授是这些系统的磁性，特别是穆斯堡尔谱方面的专家。人工制备多层膜的研究被认为是固体物理研究的前沿课题之一，这一合作的结果将具有重大的科学意义。预计这将产生新的数据，从而提高我们对金属超晶格磁性的理解，这可能导致新的磁存储系统的应用。

This award will support a two year cooperative research project between Professor Charles M Falco, Department of Physics, University of Arizona and Professor Teruya Shinjo, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Japan. The project will involve the experimental study of several interesting physical properties of artificial multilayers consisting of metallic elements. Artificial multilayers are new materials which do not exist in nature. As such there are a number of unusual, and potentially useful, physical phenomena exhibited by these materials including, for example, magnetic excitations, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, dimensionality crossover effects, and unusual magneto-optic properties. The particular physical properties to be studied include perpendicular magnetization in ultrathin magnetic layers, giant magnetoresistance of ferromagnetic multilayers, and lattice dynamics and elastic properties of epitaxial multilayers. A variety of techniques available in Arizona and Kyoto will be used to characterize these materials including x-ray diffraction, Brillouin light scattering, superconducting measurements and a variety of surface science probes. The materials themselves will be prepared by alternately depositing two elements using vacuum deposition and sputtering techniques. The expertise of the US and Japanese scientists is complemen- tary. Professor Falco is an expert in the structural and electronic properties of thin films and superlattices, while Professor Shinjo is an expert on the magnetic properties, particularly the Mossbauer spectroscopy, of these systems. The study of artificially prepared multilayers is considered to be among the frontier topics in solid state physics research and the results of this collaboration will be of great scientific interest. It is expected that the collabor- ation will generate new data that will improve our under- standing of the magnetic properties of metallic superlattices which may lead to new systems for magnetic storage applicat- tions.