Professor Divine Kumah,
Department of Physics, North Carolina State University
George P. Williams, Jr. Lecture Hall, (Olin 101)
Wednesday, November 28, 2018, at 4:00 PM
There will be a reception with refreshments at 3:30 PM in the lounge. All interested persons are cordially invited to attend.
ABSTRACT
Complex oxide materials provide a wide range of unique electronic, orbital and magnetic properties which are intimately linked to their atomic scale structure. The ability to form heterostructures comprising of atomic layers of different oxide materials with differing properties has led to the realization of emergent phenomena including multiferroicity, high mobility two dimensional electron gases and superconductivity which are not found in the constituent materials. A key research question relates to understanding the origin of these interface-induced phenomena. Using high-resolution synchrotron diffraction to image the interfacial structures of oxide heterostructures, we show that structural distortions driven by interfacial polar distortions significantly affect their electronic, orbital and magnetic properties.
This talk will focus on rare-earth nickelate and manganite thin films where observed structural distortions affecting the transition metal-oxygen bond lead to metal-insulator and magnetic transitions. Novel approaches will be presented to control atomic distortions and engineer the electronic, orbital and magnetic properties of these systems.