Studying Quantum Materials and Devices at Low Temperatures

这项提案要求资金支持一个由研究生和本科生组成的研究团队从事几项具有挑战性的测量工作。我的理念是找出可以通过改进和创新的测量技术来回答的悬而未决的问题。例如，通过建立超低温比热测量，我们已经在受挫的磁性材料中发现了以前没有检测到的相变。另一个例子是开发一种新的光子探测器，它可以多路复用到大量的像素阵列，并且可以针对大范围的能量(从亚毫米到X射线)进行优化。这些探测器(动态电感探测器)目前正在为最先进的望远镜相机开发，但也可以适用于其他应用，如用于医学研究的X射线探测器。我的团队致力于超导量子干涉设备(Squids)的研究。这些是最灵敏的磁场传感器，我们用它来定制测量来检测新材料的微妙磁性。我们正在研究一种迷人而复杂的受挫磁性材料系统的磁性，这些材料可能是新的磁态(量子自旋液体)的候选者。在所有这些项目中，我们都与专家合作，要么是专门研究磁性材料的理论家，要么是有着互补测量和兴趣的晶体生长者和中子散射者，要么是有着不同和互补背景的天体物理学家。

This proposal requests funds to support a research team of graduate students and undergraduates to work on several of challenging measurements.  My philosophy is to identify open questions that can be answered with improved and innovative measurement techniques.  For example by setting up ultra low temperature specific heat measurements we have identified previously undetected phase transitions in frustrated magnetic materials.  Another example is developing a new photon detector that can be multiplexed to large number of pixel arrays and can be optimized for a large range of energy (from sub-mm to x-ray). These detectors (Kinetic inductance detectors) are now being developed for state-of-the-art telescope cameras but can be adapted to other applications such as x-ray detectors for medical research.  My group works on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS). These are the most sensitive magnetic field sensors, with this we customize measurements to detect subtle magnetic properties of novel materials. We are studying the magnetic properties of a fascinating and complex systems of frustrated magnetic materials that can be candidates for new classes of magnetic state (quantum spin liquids). In all these projects we collaborate with experts, either theorists that specialize in magnetic materials, crystal growers and neutron scatterers that have complimentary measurements and interests, or astrophysicists that have a different and complimentary background. **