Description:

Dr. John Mitchell, Argonne National Laboratory

Title: What's Cooking?

Abstract: Correlated electron oxides remain a foremost area of research, principally because they host essentially the entirety of contemporary condensed matter science — superconductivity, magnetism, multiferroicity, topological protection, etc. In this talk I will discuss some of our recent work in a few areas of TMO materials physics: Specifically, I will describe our recent efforts on iridates, in particular understanding the fundamental magnetic exchange mechanism of the quantum spin liquid candidate Na2IrO3. This will include some discussion of our attempts to create related phases. I will then diverge to discuss some of the new materials we are currently working on that have become accessible to us through high pressure floating zone growth, focusing on a new class of nickelates with charge stripes and how we might make them superconductors. The hope is to give an appreciation of the kinds of materials that might be newly available as a consequence of this technique, to provide a view on the materials strategies of interest to our group and hopefully to pique the interest of potential collaborators at Northwestern.

Host: William Halperin