Synchrotron X-ray scattering plays an increasingly important role in materials science and condensed matter physics. This award provides partial support for the acquisition of a nearly unique high-magnetic-field/low-temperature facility to be operated at one of the Nations's major synchrotron X-ray sources, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). This new facility will allow the study of structural and magnetic properties of novel materials with the high momentum-resolution unique to synchrotron-generated X-rays, at magnetic fields up to 13 Tesla, and over more than three orders of magnitude in temperature, 0.3K < T < 400K.
The scientific program involves the study of materials in which electron-electron interactions play an important role. Such "correlated-electron" materials are at the frontier of condensed matter physics, and they provide myriad possibilities to discover, observe, and characterize nove fundamental phenomena. For example, the strong electron-electron correlations in charge-carrier-doped antiferromagnetic insulators with perovskite-derived structures are known to lead to such diverse properties as: (i) insulator-metal transitions, (ii) high-temperature superconductivity, (iii) colossal magnetoresistance, (iv) charge-ordered phases, (v) and spin-ordered phases. The structural, magnetic, and electronic properties are generally intimately coupled in these systems, and the presence of a magnetic field often leads to new phases. The scientific program involves charge, resonant magnetic, and non-resonant magnetic X-ray scattering techniques. It will furthermore involve in situ transport measurements to obtain simultaneous structural, magnetic, and electronic information. Moreover, it will benefit from complementary research involving the growth and characterization of single crystals, neutron scattering experiments, and the collaboration with the ongoing photoemission spectroscopy effort at Stanford. This new high-magnetic-field/low-temperature synchrotron X-ray facility will thus allow the invesitgator to conduct research at the forefront of materials science and condensed matter physics, and it will help educate a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students with materials science, applied science, and physics backgrounds. %%% ***
