A Platform to Develop and Utilise Characterisation Tools for Functional Magnetic Materials

磁性材料在我们的社会中发挥着越来越重要的作用。近年来，帝国理工学院的功能磁性材料小组开发了一套新颖的表征工具。该提案描述了如何在适当的支持下，我们可以利用这些工具在应用材料的重要研究中取得最佳效果，并酌情开发关键的新工具。我们在平台资助过程中研究的材料分为四个主要领域a)用于磁传感器技术的超薄膜窄间隙半导体；b)用于低场便携式MRI技术的超导材料；c)利用电子自旋的材料d) 300K磁制冷的材料。第一个领域是该小组目前正在做的工作的一部分，但是我们希望将新的元素，如应变测量纳入我们的霍尔探头和点接触设备以及纳米级传感器制造中。我们对该小组的展望是在自旋电子学和磁热学领域。在自旋电子学方面，我们计划开发新的工具来利用和利用电子材料中的自旋，主要是窄间隙半导体。这里将再次强调设备的纳米制造。磁热学对这个小组来说是一个非常新的领域，也是一个非常令人兴奋的领域。我们的表征能力非常适合在这里做出真正重要的新贡献，特别是在项目其他部分将获得更高分辨率的传感器的情况下。总的来说，该组织与国际合作者网络有着良好的联系，其中许多人都写了支持这项提议的信。我们的目标是利用该平台在一定程度上加强这些联系，并播种新的合作，探索在欧洲和与工业合作者提供资金的新途径。

Magnetic materials have played an increasingly important role in our society. The Functional Magnetic Materials Group at Imperial College have developed a suite of novel characterisation tools over recent years. This proposal describes how with proper support we could utilise these tools to best effect in the study of materials important for application and develop key new tools as appropriate. The materials we aim to study during the course of the Platform grant fall into four main areas a) ultrathin film narrow gap semiconductors for magnetic sensor technology; b)superconducting materials for low field portable MRI technology; c) materials that allow the harnessing of electron spin d) materials for 300K magnetic refrigeration. The first areas are very much a part of what the group are currently doing however we want to incorporate the new elements such as strain measurements in our Hall probe and point contact facilities and nanoscale sensor fabrication. Our forward look for the group is in the areas of Spintronics and Magnetocalorics. In Spintronics we plan to develop new tools to harness and exploit spin in electrical materials mainly narrow gap semiconductors. Here again there will be an emphasis on nanofabrication of devices. Magnetocalorics is a very new area for the group and a very exciting one. Our characterisation capability is ideally suited to making a really important novel contribution here, particularly with access to higher resolution sensors that will come out of other parts of the program. Overall the group is well connected to a network of international collaborators and many of these have written letters of support for this proposal. It would be our aim to use the Platform in part to strengthen these links as well as seed new collaborations and explore new avenues for funding in Europe and with industrial collaborators.