Abstract

Emma McCabe, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent Insights into long-range and local phenomena from complementary techniques

Understanding structure – property relationships is essential for explaining the origins of physical phenomena. The structural information we gain from long range diffraction methods (such as X-ray and neutron powder diffraction), particularly if collected across a phase transition or as a function of temperature or field, is invaluable. However, these data are often not sufficient to give us the whole picture, and complementary techniques (including more local probes as well as insights from theory) can help give a deeper understanding of materials. I’d like to present work on a range of materials including polar oxides [1,2] and magnetic oxychalcogenides [3] based on our results from diffraction, property measurements, muon spin rotation and density functional theory calculations.

[1] McCabe, E. E.; Bousquet, E.; Stockdale, C. P. J.; Deacon, C. A.; Tran, T. T.; Halasyamani, P. S.; Stennett, M. C.; Hyatt, N. C., Chem. Mater. 2015, 27, 8298. [2] Li, M.-R.; McCabe, E. E.; Stephens, P. W.; Croft, M.; Collins, L.; Kalinin, S. V.; Deng, Z.; Retuerto, M.; Gupta, A. S.; Padmanabhan, H.; Gopalan, V.; Grams, C. P.; Hemberger, J.; Orlandi, F.; Manuel, P.; Li, W.-M.; Jin, C.-Q.; Walker, D.; Greenblatt, M., Nature Commun. 2017, 8, 2037. [3] Coles, B. C.; Hillier, A. D.; Bristowe, N. C.; Ramos-Perez, S.; McCabe, E. E., in preparation 2018.

David Jarvis, Dept. of Physics, University of Cambridge Quantum Criticality in Multiferroic Systems My research is currently focused on the tuning of quantum criticality in charge ordered systems. I am particularly interested in the behaviour of quantum critical points in systems having more than one coupled order parameter such as multiferroic materials. I carry out electric and magnetic measurements at cryogenic temperatures whilst using pressure as a tuning parameter, involving the use of piston-cylinder and diamond anvil pressure cells.