CNM Molecular Beam Epitaxy Research Garners Best Poster Prize

Dr. Tiffany Santos, a Distinguished Postdoc at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, won the best poster prize at the International Center for Materials Research (ICMR) Frontiers of Complex Oxides Workshop at Santa Barbara, held July 6-11, 2008. The workshop brought together leading experts and junior researchers to define the grand challenges in complex oxides research and explore collaborative routes to addressing them.

Two members of the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group (Santos and Anand Bhattacharya) attended the workshop, which was greatly beneficial to the CNM as they are in the early stage of the complex oxide research program. It was an excellent forum to discuss research directions and promote ozone-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at the CNM. This poster was based on samples synthesized by using the oxide MBE system.

The speakers at the workshop voted on the best poster presentation. The contest prize consists of a trip to an upcoming workshop on materials research hosted by ICMR or another international collaborative materials group. Dr. Santos will use this prize to attend the European School on Multiferroics in Girona, Spain, at the beginning of September.

"Creating an Antiferromagnetic Metal in La1-xSrxMnO3 by Digital Synthesis," Tiffany S. Santos, Steven J. May, Anand Bhattacharya, and J. L. Robertson (abstract)

Schematic of a digital superlattice consisting of alternating layers of the perovskite manganites LaMnO3 and SrMnO3, where each layer is just a single unit cell (0.4 nm) in thickness. Using the ozone-assisted molecular beam epitaxy system at the CNM, we have successfully synthesized such structures with single atomic layer control. With the capability to make these digital superlattices, we can study the magnetic and charge interactions that occur at abrupt interfaces between complex oxide materials, which give rise to new phenomena not found in the constituent materials.

Steven J, May, Anand Bhattacharya, and Tiffany Santos