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Success Stories - Exploring the Mysteries of Superconductivity
January 19, 2009 — Chalk River, Ontario
Iranian-born NRC researcher, Dr. Zahra Yamani, radiates sheer enthusiasm when she speaks of her work at the NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (NRC-CNBC) in Chalk River, Ontario. Despite living far from her homeland and family, she is energetically pursuing her passion in physics - superconductivity - using neutron scattering to explore the properties of novel superconducting materials.
In her late teens, Dr. Yamani discovered the direction her career would take. She recalls the excitement she felt in her first year of university when learning about conductivity and then superconductivity. "It intrigued me that the resistivity of superconducting metals suddenly drops to zero below a certain temperature whereas, for non- superconducting metals, it gradually decreases to a finite value when cooled," she says. "When I learned that the behaviour of the so-called high-temperature superconductors couldn't be explained by current theory, I wanted to know more."
Dr. Zahra Yamani in front of DUALSPEC, which includes the C2 High Resolution Powder Diffractometer and the C5 Polarized Beam Triple-Axis Spectrometer.
Dr. Yamani came to Canada in 1998 to pursue further education and a satisfying research career. Arriving with her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Iran's internationally recognized Sharif University of Technology, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2003. During her studies in Canada, she became a citizen.
"I learned of the NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre in 2000 when my Ph.D. supervisor, the late Professor Bryan Statt, encouraged me to attend the neutron scattering summer school. I learned a great deal and was very impressed with both the facility and the people," recalls Dr. Yamani. "As I was finishing my Ph.D., I applied for an NSERC visiting fellowship at CNBC, where I started my post-doc. About a year later, I won a position and started as an assistant research officer in January 2005."
“Despite all the research on new superconducting materials, there still is no complete theoretical understanding of high-temperature superconductivity. It's an important unsolved problem in physics,” says Dr. Zahra Yamani.
Dr. Yamani's personal research interest is high-temperature superconductivity. As an instrument scientist responsible for one of the NRC-CNBC spectrometers, she and her colleagues study the magnetic and electronic properties of different materials - mainly superconductors and oxides.
"We compare our data with available theories to either prove or disprove a theory or to obtain parameters needed in theory," explains Dr. Yamani. "Sometimes we discover a property that was not predicted to exist in such materials. That's one of the ways in which we are advancing today's understanding of the properties of materials."
Dr. Yamani is often asked whether her research will have immediate applications. "Most of the materials we study, such as high-temperature superconductors, do not have immediate everyday applications," she says. "However, the use of neutron scattering allows us to solve natural mysteries, which is very exciting. And the discoveries we make will eventually lead us to new materials that will have everyday applications."
Dr. Yamani and her colleagues are using neutron scattering to advance knowledge in a field that holds great promise for electric power transmission, communications, medical diagnostic tools such as MRI and many other applications.
Dr. Yamani's own research is strongly integrated with that of a network of external scientific collaborators. Given her expertise in the use of neutron scattering, Dr. Yamani guides these collaborators by formulating effective experiments, designing the set-up, then supervising the collection and analysis of the resulting data. Dr. Yamani maintains her interaction with the research team, from completion of the submission of papers to leading peer-reviewed journals and international conferences.
"The most rewarding aspect of this job is the chance to collaborate directly with many national and international scientists - including university professors, Ph.D. students and post-docs," says Dr. Yamani. "It is this direct human interaction in trying to solve scientific problems that makes this job so rich and satisfying."
Dr. Yamani hopes the neutron scattering research on advanced materials in Canada can continue well into the future, but it all depends on whether there is a replacement for the 50-year-old research reactor at Chalk River. "A new, world-class Canadian facility would allow us to continue helping the national and international scientific community perform neutron scattering research," she says. "It would also be an ideal training ground for highly qualified personnel," she adds.
