Wisconsin MRSEC researchers have demonstrated that strain can dramatically alter the magnetoelastic properties of a two-dimensional material, CrSBr. Magnetoelasticity is the interaction between magnetism and strain. The researchers developed a nanoscale mechanical resonator device to measure the material’s magnetoelastic coupling. Using it, they showed that 2D CrSBr has a particularly large coupling, and that it can be tuned by 50% by stretching the 2D membrane.
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(2024) Tuning the Magnetic Anisotropy in Artificially Layered Mn3GaN/Mn3Ga Superlattices
Wisconsin MRSEC researchers have create an artificially magnetic material by alternating layers of Mn3GaN and Mn3Ga in perfect atomic registry with one another. The resulting material offers best-of-both worlds performance for advanced electronic devices based on spin. Their magnetism is easy to switch to encode information, but it is stable once set to a specific state. These outstanding properties arise both from the properties of the layers themselves and from the unique atomic environments that exist where the two layers meet. As a result, combining materials this way lets materials scientists design materials that cannot otherwise exist.
(2024) Graph Machine Learning for Polycrystals
Polycrystalline materials are everywhere in everyday life, but their microstructure – the arrangement of atoms into crystal grains and grains into a piece of material – covers 10 orders of magnitude in size and involves millions important features. This complexity makes it extremely difficult for scientists to predict the properties of polycrystalline materials quickly and accurately. Wisconsin MRSEC researchers have leveraged the power of machine learning to tame the complexity of polycrystalline materials and predict their properties. They have developed a graph neural network approach that predicts materials properties with >98% accuracy 90,000 times faster than competing methods. They applied this model to predict magnetostriction, which quantifies the size change of a material induced by a magnetic field. Development and design of high magnetostriction materials will enable MRSEC researchers to efficiently control magnetism using mechanical force and enable future technologies such like magnetic soft robots
Kawasaki Honored with 2024 MBE Young Investigator Award
The International Conference on Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) has recognized MRSEC IRB 2 Co-Lead, Jason Kawasaki, with the 2024 Young Investigator MBE Award in September. According to the conference’s website, Kawasaki was awarded this honor, “For …
Collaborative MRSEC Research Results in Nano Letters Cover Article Last Month
Wisconsin MRSEC research groups (Xiao, Wang, Ping) have made significant progress in understanding and engineering the spin-mechanical coupling properties of two-dimensional materials CrSBr, an air-stable 2D magnet. Using nano-opto-electro-mechanical systems (NOEMS), they have observed the …
Wisconsin MRSEC Researchers Develop New Cutting-Edge Tool for Materials Discovery
A team of researchers from the Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Education Center (MRSEC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has designed, constructed, and implemented a new, highly specialized piece of research equipment that can be used to visualize the real-time formation and growth of tiny crystals of novel materials. The unique perspective provided by this approach provides access to new ways to discover and develop materials relevant to electronics, optics, and magnetic applications.
(2020) Solid-Phase Crystallization Produces Oxide Buffer Layers Lattice-Matched to Semiconductors
Engineers currently lack good substrate materials on which to grow thin films of materials like GaN with few defects. These layers are needed in applications like high-power transistors and solid-state lighting. Available bulk crystals have the wrong crystal structure or the wrong distance between the atoms. The Wisconsin MRSEC has developed a buffer layer material and related synthesis method that promises to alleviate the substrate problem.
(2020) Solid-phase Epitaxy Produces Magnetic Oxides with Novel Magnetic Properties
The Wisconsin MRSEC has created thin films of a fascinating magnetic material, Pr2Ir2O7, in which the magnetic moments are frustrated: No matter how they are arranged, some of the moments are always fighting to change their direction, like two bar magnets with their north poles shoved together. Frustration creates a rich landscape for discovery and manipulation of new magnetic effects and of electronic phenomena linked to magnetism.
(2020) In Situ Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation for Challenging Problems in Oxide Crystallization
Researchers at the Wisconsin MRSEC have developed a new instrument using very bright synchrotron x-ray beams to watch nanoscale crystals as they grow. The system has a unique design that allows the crystals to grow in vacuum while keeping the x-ray lenses and the x-ray beam in air but bringing them very close to the crystal. Wisconsin MRSEC researchers are using this new instrument to learn about solid phase epitaxy, a process based on the growth of ordered crystals from a disordered amorphous solid, which is capable of creating new materials for applications in electronics, optics, sensors, and quantum information.