CAREER: Magnetocaloric Effect in Metallic Nanostructures

技术综述：这项研究将通过制备和表征新型的磁性金属组成的纳米异质结构来加深对磁热效应的理解。几何约束和物理邻近性将被用来扰动和理解在相关相变时支配熵的结构-性质关系。研究将包括成分梯度、有限尺寸效应、定制界面和磁各向异性。人工结构材料的物理性质将通过一系列手段来表征，从标准的磁测量和衍射技术，到与美国国家实验室合作获得的同步加速器和中子探测器。这些研究将有助于设计具有增强的熵性能的材料，这最终将与高效磁制冷相关。非技术概述：通过在自然界中不存在的奇异纳米结构中制造其他标准材料，有可能制造出性能优于单个材料的新材料。这将通过使材料在纳米尺度上接触来实现。物理特性将在美国国家实验室和/或用户设施中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领域相关，该领域有可能开发使用环境友好型制冷剂的极高效率制冷。本科生和研究生的教学和培养将融入前沿的跨学科纳米磁学研究。学生将通过在会议上传播工作成果，参与合作，并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，以增加本科生？科学素养，使之能够轻松和早期地过渡到活跃的研究实验室，并提高本科生体验的质量。USF的跨学科科学、技术和数学教育研究集群将帮助将此模块扩展到其他学科，以便接触到从硬科学到健康科学的广泛受众。

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.