With this award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program, the Department of Physics at New York University will acquire an automated vector high field superconducting magnet system. This system will be used to study magnetic nanostructures and, in particular, quantum tunneling of the magnetic moment (QTM). Understanding such characteristics of magnetic nanostructures is a major scientific challenge with important implications for the miniaturization of magnetic storage technology. This system will be used with high sensitivity Hall-effect magnetometers, that have sensitivities many orders of magnitude better than commercially available magnetometers. This sensitivity, coupled with a wide operating temperature, 0.3 K to 300 K, and the new ability to vary the field magnitude and orientation rapidly, will permit unique and advanced characterization of the magnetic properties of materials. In particular, it will greatly enhance interdisciplinary projects focused on understanding QTM in chemically synthesized nanometer-sized magnets. The equipment will also enhance the research and educational opportunities at NYU and the research capabilities available to a multi-university interdisciplinary scientific collaboration. Graduate students will use this instrument in their research. Undergraduates will also participate in the synthesis of magnetic nanostructures and their characterization at this advanced experimental facility. %%%
With this award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program, the Department of Physics at New York University will acquire an automated vector high field superconducting magnet system. This system will be used to study magnetic nanostructures. The miniaturization of magnetic devices to this size is critical to advances in magnetic information storage, which is an important industry in the United States. For instance, nanoscale magnets exhibit quantum tunneling of the magnetic moment (QTM), that may seriously limit their usefulness in conventional magnetic information storage, but at the same time, could provide a medium for a much faster type of information processing known as quantum computing. This system will be used to conduct high sensitivity magnetic measurements over a wide range of magnetic fields and temperatures, not possible with commercially available instruments. In particular, it will greatly enhance interdisciplinary projects focused on understanding QTM in chemically synthesized nanometer-sized magnets. The equipment will also enhance the research and educational opportunities at NYU and the research capabilities available to a multi-university interdisciplinary scientific collaboration.
