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Physics Colloquium-Dr. John W. Freeland
February 7, 2014 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Using Experimental Insight Coupled to Theory in the Search for New Energy Materials
Dr. John W. Freeland
Physicist
X-ray Science Division in Advanced Photon Source
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL
The energy challenges of today necessitate the need to create new classes of materials that will allow us to meet the global energy needs of the future. Functional oxides based on the transition metal series display a wide spectrum of remarkable properties including magnetism, superconductivity and metal-insulator transitions, which offer potential important properties for practical applications by harnessing the enormous response of these materials to the change in local environment. This response arises from the interaction between the competing interactions within in the system and the main scientific challenge is to rationally control these interactions in order to optimize materials. The key to controlling these properties is intimately connected with the chemical structure. By using atomic layer-by-layer growth to create crystal structures, thin film synthesis offers novel route to control oxide structure in ways not attainable in the bulk counterparts. This allows one to access new regions of phase space to explore emergent states not present in bulk form. Here I will highlight our recent work on functional oxide heterostuctures where we are using the connection between theory and experiment to not only create a framework for rational materials design[1-7], but to find pathways to more efficiently synthesize novel materials predicted by theory.
Work at Argonne is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
[1] Jian Liu et al. Nature Communications 4 2714 (2013).
[2] I.C. Tung et al. Physical Review B 88, 205112 (2013).
[2] H.Jeen et al. Nature Materials 12, 1057 (2013)
[3] Te-Yu Chien et al. Nature Communications 4 2236 (2013).
[1] S.J. May, J.M. Rondinelli, and J.W. Freeland, MRS Bulletin 37, 261 (2012)
[2] J. Liu et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 107402 (2012)
[3] J. Liu et al. Phys. Rev. B 83, 161102 (2011).
[4] J. Chakhalian et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 116805 (2011).
[5] J.W. Freeland et. al. Europhysics Letters 96, 57004 (2011).