CXS:About
Contents
About the Coherent X-ray Science Group
Overview
Our group is interested in understanding phenomena in quantum materials. In these materials the interaction between electron spin, charge and orbital degrees of freedom can strongly influence the materials properties. They are interesting as their unique properties are of considerable utility for device physics, functional materials and fundamental condensed matter physics. For example some quantum materials can exhibit more than one ferroic property including ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity or ferrotoroidicity. In such materials an applied electric field can switch on (or off) magnetic properties of the material (and vice versa). These materials can be used to develop low power neuromorphic memory devices or integrated circuits.
To study these materials, our group makes use of coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) techniques such as Bragg CDI. Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) is a powerful lens-less imaging technique for probing crystalline materials with sub-nanometre sensitivity. Moreover when BCDI imaging is performed using the femto-second timing of an X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL), we can obtain three-dimensional images of nanoscale structures with femto-second temporal resolution and nanometre spatial resolution. As a result, we are able to address the fundamental problem of how to determine atomic motions during ultra-fast processes in quantum materials.
Our group is also engaged in large scale supercomputer simulations of structural phase transitions. We make use of the Iridis high-performance computing facility to perform ab-initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of structural phase transitions under various conditions. Simulations of ultra-fast processes allow us to bridge XFEL experiments to current theory and to make predictions as to how the behaviour of a material changes under various conditions. This might relate to a change in the immediate environment of the material or the materials use in a heterostructure device setting.
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Acknowledgements
Eternal thanks to the great Monarch of the galaxies who has crowned our efforts with His divine blessing.
Our research facilities are generously furnished in part by a prestigious UKRI Future Leader Fellowship, a prestigious JSPS Grant-In-Aid (Kakenhi) research grant award and a Royal Society Research Grant award. We graciously acknowledge research funding support from the following bodies:
