The instrument acquisition provides state-of-the-art capability for measuring electrical, thermal and magnetic properties of a broad variety of materials, to enable next-generation information storage devices; high-speed electronics; lower-cost and higher-efficiency solar cells; high-energy physics infrastructure and medical imaging technologies to name a few. In addition, it will support industry-university partnership to develop new and advanced techniques for investigating materials. The equipment will fill a critical void in the materials research infrastructure in Oregon and be designated as a shared resource available to other academic institutions and regional small businesses. Graduate and undergraduate students participating in the research projects will gain experience in advanced measurement techniques on a platform widely used in research and development laboratories worldwide. The robustness and ease of use of the instrument will also enable enriching science outreach opportunities for high school and under-represented minority students in the community.
The acquisition of the instrument enables turnkey as well as custom characterization of electrical, magnetic and thermal properties of a wide variety of materials, including semiconductor, multiferroic, magnetic and superconducting materials. Turnkey options available include state-of-the-art magnetometry, and thermal conductivity and electrical charge transport measurements over a wide range of temperature (1.8 K to 400 K) and magnetic field (0 to 14 T). The open hardware and software architecture of the system, amenable to customization, will permit development of new measurement techniques to support materials discovery as well as fundamental understanding of the physics underlying material behavior. Specifically, the systematic measurements and cutting-edge experiments enabled by the instrument will facilitate discovery and design of new materials with strong coupling between multiple properties including high-coercivity magnetostrictive materials; room-temperature multiferroic materials based on Aurivilius-phase or magnetoplumbite compounds; and metastable materials that promise higher photovoltaic and thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency. It will support the creation of new characterization techniques including atomic-resolution magnetic microscopy using vortex electron beams; sub-cellular imaging of live biological samples by magnetic particle imaging and advanced systems for measuring magnetostrictive and magnetoelectric properties of materials. It will lead to understanding of the fundamental physics underpinning electron-electron interactions in nanostructures; conduction processes in quantum-dot solids; and magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic materials. Experiments using dielectrics to screen Coulomb interactions will provide compelling new tests of Luttinger liquid theory and Mott insulator gap theory in carbon nanotubes. And it will enable development of novel synthesis and manufacturing methods for 3D printed magnetic materials, multiferroics, quantum dot solids and niobium superconductors.
