Publications
Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy for Irregularly Shaped Samples and Its Application to Uranium Ditelluride
Resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) is a powerful technique for measuring the full elastic tensor of a given material in a single experiment. Previously, this technique was practically limited to regularly shaped samples such as rectangular parallelepipeds, spheres, and cylinders [W. M. Visscher et al. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 2154 (1991)].
Elastocaloric evidence for a multicomponent superconductor stabilized within the nematic state in Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2
The iron-based high-Tc superconductors exhibit rich phase diagrams with intertwined phases, including magnetism, nematicity and superconductivity. The superconducting Tc in many of these materials is maximized in the regime of strong nematic fluctuations, making the role of nematicity in influencing the superconductivity a topic of intense research. Here, we use the AC elastocaloric effect (ECE) to map out the phase diagram of Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 near optimal doping.
Magnetotropic susceptibility
The magnetotropic susceptibility is the thermodynamic coefficient associated with the rotational anisotropy of the free energy in an external magnetic field and is closely related to the magnetic susceptibility. It emerges naturally in frequency-shift measurements of oscillating mechanical cantilevers, which are becoming an increasingly important tool in the quantitative study of the thermodynamics of modern condensed-matter systems.
Symmetry-enforced Fermi degeneracy in topological semimetal
Quantum Oscillations in Graphene Using Surface Acoustic Wave Resonators
Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) provide a contactless method for measuring wave-vector-dependent conductivity. This technique has been used to discover emergent length scales in the fractional quantum Hall regime of traditional, semiconductor-based heterostructures. SAWs would appear to be an ideal match for van der Waals heterostructures, but the right combination of substrate and experimental geometry to allow access to the quantum transport regime has not yet been found.
Calorimetric measurement of nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate in metals
The quasiparticle density of states in correlated and quantum-critical metals directly probes the effect of electronic correlations on the Fermi surface. Measurements of the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate provide one such experimental probe of quasiparticle mass through the electronic density of states. By far the most common way of accessing the spin-lattice relaxation rate is via nuclear magnetic resonance and nuclear quadrupole resonance experiments, which require resonant excitation of nuclear spin transitions.
Rapid method for computing the mechanical resonances of irregular objects
A solid object's geometry, density, and elastic moduli completely determine its spectrum of normal modes. Solving the inverse problem - determining a material's elastic moduli given a set of resonance frequencies and sample geometry - relies on the ability to compute resonance spectra accurately and efficiently. Established methods for calculating these spectra are either fast but limited to simple geometries, or are applicable to arbitrarily shaped samples at the cost of being prohibitively slow.
Nanocalorimetry using microscopic optical wireless integrated circuits
We present in situ calorimetry, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity measurements of materials using temperature-sensing optical wireless integrated circuits (OWiCs). These microscopic and untethered optical sensors eliminate input wires and reduce parasitic effects. Each OWiC has a mass of ∼100 ng, a 100-μm-scale footprint, and a thermal response time of microseconds. We demonstrate that they can measure the thermal properties of nearly any material, from aerogels to metals, on samples as small as 100 ng and over thermal diffusivities covering four orders of magnitude.
Piezomagnetic switching of the anomalous Hall effect in an antiferromagnet at room temperature
Piezomagnetism couples strain linearly to magnetic order, implying that it can produce and control magnetization. However, unlike magnetostriction, which couples magnetization quadratically to strain, it enables bidirectional control of a net magnetic moment. If this effect becomes large at room temperature, it may be technologically relevant, similar to its electric analogue, piezoelectricity. However, current studies of the piezomagnetic effect have been primarily restricted to antiferromagnetic insulators at cryogenic temperatures.
Strong increase in ultrasound attenuation below Tc in Sr2 RuO4: Possible evidence for domains
Recent experiments suggest that Sr2RuO4 has a two-component superconducting order parameter (OP). A two-component OP has multiple degrees of freedom in the superconducting state that can result in low-energy collective modes or the formation of domain walls-a possibility that would explain a number of experimental observations including the smallness of the signature of time reversal symmetry breaking at Tc and telegraph noise in critical current experiments. We use resonant ultrasound spectroscopy to perform ultrasound attenuation measurements across the superconducting Tc of Sr2RuO4.