Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The objective of this proposal is to study electronic, magnetic and superconductivity of bulk and thin films of ceramic oxides and metal intercalated compounds. The main focus of my research will be on transition metal oxides (perovskite structure) which have shown rich and extraordinary physical properties that are technologically important, such as high TC superconductors and manganites. In some perovskite, the orbital degrees of freedom of electrons in conjunction with the strong coupling between their spin and orbit affect their magnetic and conducting properties. For example, perovskite, LaVO3 undergoes a structural and anti-ferromagnetic phase transition at low temperature with different orbital and spin ordering in the new phase. Another interesting compound is PrCoO3 (possible uses in electrochemica devices) which is an insulator with no magnetic transition. However, slight replacement (doping) of La with Sr or Ca causes this material to show large magneto-resististance (MR) with a small magnetic field. I am proposing to do the following research on how strain as well as external pressures affect the electronic and magnetic properties of the bulk and films of LaVO3 as well as Pr(1-x)SrxCoO3. This will allow us to investigate and to see whether or not we can use the thin films of these materials for possible application.My secondary objective is to study superconductivity by putting metals in-between carbon layers in graphite (intercalated graphite MC6, M=metal). Graphite is a layered compound where carbon atoms are strongly bounded in planes and weakly bounded out of plane. One can put different metals between these planes which is called intercalation. By doing this, we can change the electronic properties of graphite, for example, by intercalating Ca (calcium) it becomes, superconductor at low temperature. What we are planning to do is intercalate a variety of atoms in graphite and observe how its electronic and magnetic properties change. This will help us understand why intercalated graphite becomes a superconductor.