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Zahra-Sadat Yamani
Phone: 613-584-8811x43932
Fax: 613-584-4040
Email: Zahra.Yamani@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Quantum Materials
The program covers research on novel magnetic systems. Neutron Scattering is the only method that directly determines the internal structure and dynamics of magnetic materials. The polarized beam triple-axis spectrometer (PTAS) of DUALSPEC (C5) is a particularly powerful instrument for investigation of magnetic systems. It allows the researcher to control not only the energy and momentum of the neutron, but also its spin. The latter is very sensitive to details of the magnetic interactions in materials. Spin polarized neutrons allow the magnetic scattering to be distinguished from the nuclear and vibrational interactions. The magnetic and atomic structure of materials, their phase transitions and their time evolution, can be studied on the high resolution powder diffractometer C2. Magnetic materials may also be studied on all other spectrometers but without the polarization option.
The key goal is to understand the processes that determine the fundamental states of matter. The interaction of highly correlated electrons allows a material to evolve into a state that may be magnetically disordered by quantum fluctuations or by structural frustration, that may be a superconductor, or an ordered magnetic phase.
The materials may be single or poly crystals that are metallic or insulating. They can be synthesized to contain within them one- or two-dimensional arrays of atomic magnetic spins. They may also consist of nanostructured atomically thin layers, tailored with molecular beams so as to create new types of ordering.
Such model systems provide a direct test of fundamental theories and symmetries. They address similar challenging issues as in particle physics, but the particles are now the spin excitations and their strong interactions as they travel within the paths of the crystalline lattice. In this way spin interactions in materials provide a microcosm of the universe in which to test its laws. A major advantage of studying magnetic systems, as opposed to studying fundamental particles directly, is the scientist's ability to change external conditions such as temperature, magnetic field or pressure, and observe how the excitations respond. In the high-temperature superconductors compelling evidence is being assembled that a new type of pairing of electrons is at work. Their superconducting, loss-less transport of electricity is deeply influenced by the magnetic fluctuations of their quantum spins arranged on a square lattice in two dimensions.
Neutron scattering is the technique of choice for observing the spin structure and its dynamics in the new superconductors, in quantum and frustrated spin liquids and in magnetic materials generally.
Related Information
Read more about Quantum Materials:
Exploring the Mysteries of Superconductivity [news article]
