This Faculty Early Career Award funds a project that will use polarized light to study novel magnetic materials and to enhance undergraduate education at the University at Buffalo. Ruthenate perovskites (RP) and diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are revolutionizing fundamental concepts in condensed matter physics and show great potential for technological applications that will exploit their rich collective behavior. Although the infrared energy range (100-250 meV) is critical to understanding these materials, exploration of the magneto-optical properties of these materials in this range has been extremely limited. By studying the magnetization-induced polarization changes in infrared radiation probing RP and DMS materials, this project will provide valuable constraints to guide and filter theoretical models. The technique used in this project avoids artifacts such as impurity scattering that can dominate dc magneto-transport measurements. The educational component of this project will provide educational opportunities and develop new educational/research resources. This component includes the development of web-based interactive graphical demonstrations to explain the polarization of light. Undergraduate students will be involved in building, testing, and using a magneto-optical polarization probe system, which will be part of a new teaching laboratory as well as a characterization tool for research at the University at Buffalo.
This Faculty Early Career Award funds a project that will use polarized light to study novel magnetic materials and to enhance undergraduate education at the University at Buffalo. Ruthenate perovskites (RP) and diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are revolutionizing fundamental concepts in physics and show great potential for technological applications that will exploit their rich collective behavior. The infrared wavelength range (ten to twenty times the wavelength of visible light) is critical to understanding these materials. By studying how magnetic fields change the polarization of infrared light as it passes through or reflects off RP and DMS materials, this project will provide valuable information that will help to develop multifunctional materials which could combine optical, electronic, and magnetic properties in dramatically new ways. The educational component of this project will provide educational opportunities and develop new educational/research resources. This component includes the development of web-based interactive graphical demonstrations to explain the polarization of light. Undergraduate students will be involved in building, testing, and using a magneto-optical polarization probe system, which will be part of a new teaching laboratory as well as a characterization tool for research at the University at Buffalo.
