Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

High-pressure low-temperature facility for Quantum Materials Laboratory The subject of my research is to explore the behaviour of electrons in "quantum materials"  -  materials in which the interactions between electrons often bring about new properties and even new states of matter. These collective phenomena, which include superconductivity and magnetism, typically manifest themselves at very low temperature, on the order of 1 degree Kelvin (-272 Celsius). The proposed equipment will allow us to apply very high pressures (up to 35 000 atmospheres) on materials at very low temperature (down to 50 milliKelvin) and measure their ability to conduct heat and charge. This will open several new avenues of research in our group. For example, it will enable us to elucidate a new form of superconductivity, discovered recently in so-called heavy-fermion metals, and search for a "spin liquid" in newly synthesized magnetic insulators - a novel state of matter predicted to exist but never observed so far. This grant will enable us to implement a high-pressure environment and transport measurements in the new magnetic refrigerator of our Quantum Materials Laboratory at the Université de Sherbrooke.