Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in the Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The creation of new materials is at the heart of technological advances. The proposed Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite presents a crucial capability that will bridge the step from laboratory preparation of materials with novel physical properties to their use in transformational technologies. The suite will comprise a bespoke Versatile Magnetic Field-Temperature Measurement System, a SQUID-Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, a Physical Properties Measurement System, a Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer and Laue Camera. This equipment will provide cutting edge capabilities necessary to characterise salient properties of novel materials and evaluate their technical promise. A crucial aspect of the advanced materials suite is its interdisciplinary character: users will span not only the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Metallurgy, and Materials Physics of Earth Sciences across Cambridge and other UK HEIs, but also, importantly, industrial partners - linkages with whom are vital for the translation of new materials into technologically relevant applications. Structural, magnetic, electrical, thermal, and optical materials properties over a diverse range of advanced materials in which Cambridge is conducting world leading research will be characterised using the equipment suite. The equipment will offer advantages of high sensitivity, rapid turnaround time, automated or semi-automated operation, and versatile properties measurement, far exceeding currently available capabilities in Cambridge, and in some cases, anywhere in the world. Crucially, the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite will be supported by skilled technicians to maintain the equipment, and to provide user assistance where needed.
Specific areas where existing world-class research in Cambridge will be boosted and new research avenues explored will include advanced alloys, electrodes for Li-ion & alternative batteries, electronic devices beyond silicon-based technology, inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks, multiferroics, nanostructured materials, medical devices, novel superconductors, photovoltaics/photocatalysts, and solid state coolants. These research areas span a substantial number of categories identified by EPSRC as being strategically important including (a) Catalysis, (b) Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, (c) Condensed Matter: Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, (d) Electrochemical Sciences, (e) Functional Ceramics & Inorganics, (f) Materials for Energy Applications, (g) Photonic Materials and Metamaterials, (h) Polymer Materials, (i) Materials Engineering - Metals & Alloys, (j) Spintronics, (k) Superconductivity.
The UK academic and industrial user base will greatly benefit from the competitive edge provided by this state-of-the-art measurement characterisation capability. Industrial users in particular will gain access to advanced materials characterisation equipment outside the scope of their traditional usage capabilities, with immediate impact on superior materials development for new technologies. Further, the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite will provide an ideal training ground for graduate students, particularly in EPSRC supported Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), who will constitute some of the core users of the equipment suite, and will gain expertise in materials-related techniques. The combination of state-of-the-art equipment, technical support, and location in the Maxwell Centre designed expressly for interdisciplinary and cross academic-industrial linkages will ensure the effective operation of the multi-user Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite.
Specific areas where existing world-class research in Cambridge will be boosted and new research avenues explored will include advanced alloys, electrodes for Li-ion & alternative batteries, electronic devices beyond silicon-based technology, inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks, multiferroics, nanostructured materials, medical devices, novel superconductors, photovoltaics/photocatalysts, and solid state coolants. These research areas span a substantial number of categories identified by EPSRC as being strategically important including (a) Catalysis, (b) Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, (c) Condensed Matter: Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, (d) Electrochemical Sciences, (e) Functional Ceramics & Inorganics, (f) Materials for Energy Applications, (g) Photonic Materials and Metamaterials, (h) Polymer Materials, (i) Materials Engineering - Metals & Alloys, (j) Spintronics, (k) Superconductivity.
The UK academic and industrial user base will greatly benefit from the competitive edge provided by this state-of-the-art measurement characterisation capability. Industrial users in particular will gain access to advanced materials characterisation equipment outside the scope of their traditional usage capabilities, with immediate impact on superior materials development for new technologies. Further, the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite will provide an ideal training ground for graduate students, particularly in EPSRC supported Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), who will constitute some of the core users of the equipment suite, and will gain expertise in materials-related techniques. The combination of state-of-the-art equipment, technical support, and location in the Maxwell Centre designed expressly for interdisciplinary and cross academic-industrial linkages will ensure the effective operation of the multi-user Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite.
Planned Impact
The University of Cambridge has a proven record of knowledge transfer to industry through either licensing of results or direct formation of start-up companies. The location of the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in the Maxwell Centre, which is a flagship initiative for fostering interaction between the university departments and industry, will be particularly conducive for commercialisation of new functional materials. Direct access to industry will allow for a clearer idea of the required specifications and viability of new materials at an early stage.
Through the operation of the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, a wide range of industrial projects will gain access to characterisation methods beyond the usual scope of the field. For example, very sensitive magnetic measurements can provide important information about materials properties in diverse applications, including for example the operation of insertion electrodes in secondary batteries, micro/nanostructures in metal alloys, or performance indicators for novel thermoelectric materials. By offering industry access to materials characterisation equipment with a high level of dedicated technical support, including assistance with analysis when required, the suite aims to allow its industrial partners to make use of characterisation techniques new to their field.
The user base will include graduate students who will receive a broad research training in diverse aspects of materials research that involve transferrable skills of value to industry. Students will be exposed to a two-way flow of ideas and research of value to industry within an academic context, and scientific problem solving in an industrial context. An outcome will be an increased flow of trained graduates into advanced materials-based industry, with much needed grounding in the area of materials research, coupled with familiarity with industrial research. Young researchers will be able to discover the scope for intellectually challenging and rewarding projects in industry, resulting in highly trained cohorts of graduate students prepared for employment in high-tech industry in the area of advanced materials.
Through the operation of the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, a wide range of industrial projects will gain access to characterisation methods beyond the usual scope of the field. For example, very sensitive magnetic measurements can provide important information about materials properties in diverse applications, including for example the operation of insertion electrodes in secondary batteries, micro/nanostructures in metal alloys, or performance indicators for novel thermoelectric materials. By offering industry access to materials characterisation equipment with a high level of dedicated technical support, including assistance with analysis when required, the suite aims to allow its industrial partners to make use of characterisation techniques new to their field.
The user base will include graduate students who will receive a broad research training in diverse aspects of materials research that involve transferrable skills of value to industry. Students will be exposed to a two-way flow of ideas and research of value to industry within an academic context, and scientific problem solving in an industrial context. An outcome will be an increased flow of trained graduates into advanced materials-based industry, with much needed grounding in the area of materials research, coupled with familiarity with industrial research. Young researchers will be able to discover the scope for intellectually challenging and rewarding projects in industry, resulting in highly trained cohorts of graduate students prepared for employment in high-tech industry in the area of advanced materials.
Publications
Yun C
(2020)
Achieving ferromagnetic insulating properties in La0.9Ba0.1MnO3 thin films through nanoengineering.
in Nanoscale
Yun C
(2021)
Creating Ferromagnetic Insulating La0.9Ba0.1MnO3 Thin Films by Tuning Lateral Coherence Length.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Yun C
(2021)
High performance, electroforming-free, thin film memristors using ionic Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Yang D
(2019)
Strain coupling and acoustic attenuation associated with glassy magnetic phase transitions in the disordered double perovskite La 2 FeMnO 6
in Physical Review B
Wu Y
(2017)
[Am]Mn(H2POO)3: A New Family of Hybrid Perovskites Based on the Hypophosphite Ligand.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Wu R
(2018)
All-Oxide Nanocomposites to Yield Large, Tunable Perpendicular Exchange Bias above Room Temperature.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Wu R
(2020)
Influence of atomic roughness at the uncompensated Fe/CoO(111) interface on the exchange-bias effect
in Physical Review B
Wu R
(2018)
Design of a Vertical Composite Thin Film System with Ultralow Leakage To Yield Large Converse Magnetoelectric Effect.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Wu R
(2021)
Self-biased magnetoelectric switching at room temperature in three-phase ferroelectric-antiferromagnetic-ferrimagnetic nanocomposites
in Nature Electronics
Van De Goor T
(2021)
Impact of Orientational Glass Formation and Local Strain on Photo-Induced Halide Segregation in Hybrid Metal-Halide Perovskites
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Tuffnell J
(2020)
Comparison of the ionic conductivity properties of microporous and mesoporous MOFs infiltrated with a Na-ion containing IL mixture
in Dalton Transactions
Son S
(2019)
Bulk properties of the van der Waals hard ferromagnet VI 3
in Physical Review B
Sheikh H
(2022)
Biomagnetic Characterization of Air Pollution Particulates in Lahore, Pakistan
in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Schiemer JA
(2017)
Elastic and anelastic relaxation behaviour of perovskite multiferroics II: PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT)-PbFe0.5Ta0.5O3 (PFT).
in Journal of materials science
Schiemer J
(2016)
Elastic and anelastic relaxation behaviour of perovskite multiferroics I: PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT)-PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3 (PFN)
in Journal of Materials Science
Pughe C
(2022)
Site-Selective d10/d0 Substitution in an S = 1/2 Spin Ladder Ba2CuTe1-xWxO6 (0 = x = 0.3).
in Inorganic chemistry
Pitcairn J
(2023)
Low-Dimensional Metal-Organic Magnets as a Route toward the S = 2 Haldane Phase.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Pitcairn J
(2023)
Low-Dimensional Metal-Organic Magnets as a Route toward the S = 2 Haldane Phase.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Park C
(2018)
Use of Mesoscopic Host Matrix to Induce Ferrimagnetism in Antiferromagnetic Spinel Oxide
in Advanced Functional Materials
Paddison JA
(2016)
Emergent order in the kagome Ising magnet Dy3Mg2Sb3O14.
in Nature communications
Paddison J
(2016)
Emergent order in the kagome Ising magnet Dy3Mg2Sb3O14
in Nature Communications
Nicolenco A
(2021)
Strain-gradient effects in nanoscale-engineered magnetoelectric materials
in APL Materials
Mustonen O
(2022)
Valence bond glass state in the 4d1 fcc antiferromagnet Ba2LuMoO6
in npj Quantum Materials
Mukherjee P
(2017)
Enhanced Magnetocaloric Effect from Cr Substitution in Ising Lanthanide Gallium Garnets Ln 3 CrGa 4 O 12 ( Ln = Tb, Dy, Ho)
in Advanced Functional Materials
Mukherjee P
(2018)
Magnetic properties of monoclinic lanthanide orthoborates, LnBO3, Ln= Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Yb
in Materials Research Bulletin
Mukherjee P
(2021)
Sample Dependence of Magnetism in the Next-Generation Cathode Material LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2.
in Inorganic chemistry
Mukherjee P
(2017)
Magnetic properties of monoclinic lanthanide metaborates, Ln(BO2)3, Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Mukherjee P
(2017)
Relieving the frustration through M n 3 + substitution in holmium gallium garnet
in Physical Review B
Mukherjee P
(2017)
Sensitivity of magnetic properties to chemical pressure in lanthanide garnets Ln 3 A 2 X 3O12, Ln = Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, A = Ga, Sc, In, Te, X = Ga, Al, Li.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
MacManus-Driscoll JL
(2023)
Interface-related phenomena in epitaxial complex oxide ferroics across different thin film platforms: opportunities and challenges.
in Materials horizons
Liu H
(2022)
f-electron hybridised Fermi surface in magnetic field-induced metallic YbB12
in npj Quantum Materials
Liu H
(2018)
Fermi surfaces in Kondo insulators.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Lee O
(2021)
Ferroelectric/multiferroic self-assembled vertically aligned nanocomposites: Current and future status
in APL Materials
Lee J
(2016)
A systematic study of 25Mg NMR in paramagnetic transition metal oxides: applications to Mg-ion battery materials.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Kursumovic A
(2020)
Lead-free relaxor thin films with huge energy density and low loss for high temperature applications
in Nano Energy
Kelly ND
(2020)
Magnetic Properties of Quasi-One-Dimensional Lanthanide Calcium Oxyborates Ca4LnO(BO3)3.
in Inorganic chemistry
Kelly N
(2022)
Crystal structure and specific heat of calcium lanthanide oxyborates Ca 4 Ln O(BO 3 ) 3
in Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials
Kelly N
(2022)
Magnetism on the stretched diamond lattice in lanthanide orthotantalates
in Physical Review Materials
Kelly N
(2020)
Structure and magnetism of a new hexagonal polymorph of Ba3Tb(BO3)3 with a quasi-2D triangular lattice
in Journal of Solid State Chemistry
Jones MA
(2019)
Short-range ordering in a battery electrode, the 'cation-disordered' rocksalt Li1.25Nb0.25Mn0.5O2.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Hsu YT
(2021)
Unconventional quantum vortex matter state hosts quantum oscillations in the underdoped high-temperature cuprate superconductors.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Hartstein M
(2017)
Fermi surface in the absence of a Fermi liquid in the Kondo insulator SmB6
in Nature Physics
Hartstein M
(2020)
Intrinsic Bulk Quantum Oscillations in a Bulk Unconventional Insulator SmB6.
in iScience
Hartstein M
(2020)
Hard antinodal gap revealed by quantum oscillations in the pseudogap regime of underdoped high-Tc superconductors
in Nature Physics
Haines CRS
(2018)
Pressure-Induced Electronic and Structural Phase Evolution in the van der Waals Compound FePS_{3}.
in Physical review letters
Haines CRS
(2020)
Magnetoelastic properties and behaviour of 4C pyrrhotite, Fe7S8, through the Besnus transition.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Haines C
(2020)
Morin-type transition in 5C pyrrhotite
in American Mineralogist
Griffith KJ
(2019)
Ionic and Electronic Conduction in TiNb2O7.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
| Description | Award objectives include the creation of a measurement suite with versatile advanced materials characterisation capabilities. Specifically aims include the operation of the new measurement suite as a shared facility, designed to reach a broad user base across academic departments within and outside Cambridge as well as from industry, with a range of experience levels from beginning to advanced. Since the start of the award, a shared equipment suite has been successfully set up, a technician recruited, and a user website developed with the aim of expanding operation and broadening the user base. Since the installation of the equipment in the EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, the suite has welcomed users from across the Cambridge University and other UK HEIs. This has included researchers from groups who are new to magnetic and electrical characterisation measurements. Work is also ongoing to develop customised measurement capabilities. We anticipate that over the next several months, the user base will expand further afield among new academic users, and to include more users from industry. Specifc results during the first 18 months of operation are listed below. i) Magnetic measurements of battery materials, published in Chemistry of Materials and featured in ILL 2017 annual report. ii) Emergence of magnetic charges in an Ising kagome system, published in Nature Communications. iii) Discovery of a Fermi surface in Kondo insulating SmB6, published in Nature Physics. iv) Discovery of the more universal emergence of a Fermi surface in Kondo insulators, published as a Fast Track communication in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. |
| Exploitation Route | There may are many potential applications in the battery and functional material sectors once these results are mature. |
| Sectors | Electronics,Environment,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Transport |
| Description | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, comprising a 7T Magnetic Properties Measurement System and a 14T Physical Properties Measurement System has a wide user base, and is used extensively by academics and industrial users across the UK. Just in the last three years (April 2020 to March 2023), the suite has supported over ninety different users, from forty different research groups in academic institutions across the UK, in disciplines ranging from physics to materials science to chemistry to engineering and beyond. A broad range of publications arising from suite usage have been reported in ResearchFish. Industrial users have included Cambridge Display Technology, and Paragraf Ltd. New measurements techniques and custom probes have been developed to expand measurement capabilities of the suite beyond those available for standard systems; these include optical capabilities such as photoluminescence and photoconductivity measurements, which are now available to users. SquidLab software - a user-friendly program for background subtraction and fitting of magnetization data - has been developed to expand the capabilities of the MPMS and make it accessible to an even broader user base. Details of this custom software have been published in the Review of Scientific Instruments (RSI) 2021, and have been downloaded over 900 times by researchers across the UK. The user base of the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is extensive enough that Quantum Design, manufacturer of the measurement systems in the suite, conducted a user conference expressly for suite users in May 2017, with the next user conference scheduled for May 2023. Follow-on funding has included an EPSRC established career fellowship 'Novel Quantum Phases in Unconventional Insulators' based on measurements performed in the AMCS, and proposing to extend these measurements further. Additional follow-on funding comprises funding for measurement systems that form part of the Henry Royce Institute facility in Cambridge. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Electronics,Energy |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Title | SquidLab - A user-friendly program for background subtraction and fitting of magnetization data |
| Description | SquidLab is an open-source program free to download for academic use with a full user-friendly graphical interface for performing flexible and robust background subtraction and dipole fitting on magnetization data. For magnetic samples with small moment sizes or sample environments with large or asymmetric magnetic backgrounds, it can become necessary to separate background and sample contributions to each measured raw voltage measurement before fitting the dipole signal to extract magnetic moments. Originally designed for use with pressure cells on a Quantum Design MPMS3 SQUID magnetometer, SquidLab is a modular object-oriented platform implemented in Matlab with a range of importers for different widely available magnetometer systems (including MPMS, MPMS-XL, MPMS-IQuantum, MPMS3, and S700X models) and has been tested with a broad variety of background and signal types. The software allows background subtraction of baseline signals, signal preprocessing, and performing fits to dipole data using Levenberg-Marquardt non-linear least squares or a singular value decomposition linear algebra algorithm that excels at picking out noisy or weak dipole signals. A plugin system allows users to easily extend the built-in functionality with their own importers, processes, or fitting algorithms. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) magnetometer, ubiquitous to physical sciences labs worldwide, is an incredibly sensitive instrument capable of measuring magnetic moments down to the absolute quantum limit. SQUIDs are used within cryostats allowing control over temperature and magnetic field to accurately measure the magnetic properties of a huge range of materials and systems from millikelvin temperatures to well above room temperature and in large magnetic fields. An unavoidable problem, however, is that the sample must be mounted or supported in some manner-often bulky or complex sample environments are required in the sample region-and the SQUID coils will measure both the sample and the "background" from this mechanism. In many cases, the magnetic moment of the sample will be so much larger than this background-which is, of course, chosen to be as non-magnetic as possible-that the background can simply be disregarded. However, a variety of experiments commonly push the boundary of this signal/noise ratio: very small or magnetically dilute samples, diamagnetic samples that must be separated from the diamagnetic sample holder, and sample environments with large magnetic background contributions such as pressure cells or NMR liquid vials to name a few. These large, sometimes asymmetric, magnetic background responses can also change and shift position with temperature-making simplistic background modelling and subtraction impossible. The concept of subtracting the background signal prior to dipole fitting or other data extraction techniques is well-established, but currently no software tools exist to make this kind of operation accessible. A SQUID magnetometer works by moving a (magnetic dipole) sample along the z axis of its coaxial superconducting coils and measuring the induced voltage at various positions along the axis. This then results in a voltage-position curve that is fitted with a dipole form to give a magnetic moment for the datapoint at a fixed temperature and field. This assumes that the recorded signal results indeed from a simple dipole. This does not hold in the case of a significant background in which the raw voltage signal will not typically be of this form. The raw voltages must, instead, be subtracted at each position, then the result fitted with the dipole equation to give a background-subtracted magnetic moment m. The Quantum Design Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS and MPMS3) models form the most widely adopted commercial SQUID magnetometers. SquidLab was primarily designed and tested with these systems, but importers for other systems such as the Cryogenic Ltd. S700X cryostat have also been developed (the user can easily implement their own custom importer plugins-most simply by modifying one of the nine included importers)-and the operating procedures will be mostly equivalent. SquidLab is an open-source program free to download under an Academic License, written and run in Matlab (2019b and above) with both powerful command-line and scripting tools and a full user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for performing flexible and robust background subtraction and dipole fitting on magnetization data. Data collected as a function of either temperature T or magnetic field H are supported. A key feature of the design is a plugin system, which allows users to easily extend the built-in functionality with their own importers, processes, or fitting algorithms, which are then automatically included into the GUI with rich help and tooltip text. The same Levenberg-Marquardt dipole fitting algorithm used internally in MPMSs is implemented, as well as a singular value decomposition (SVD) linear algebra algorithm that excels at picking out noisy or weak dipole signals. An easy to follow step-by-step GUI is provided to quickly and easily perform background subtraction and fitting operations and to view and export the resulting data, but a set of command-line and scripting APIs are also provided to allow automated batch processing of large amounts of data. The whole operation of processing a file through the GUI typically takes less than a minute. While the older generation of MPMSs included a built-in background subtraction option, the latest MPMS3 instruments have no such functionality and an external solution is required. Even when a built-in option is available, we have repeatedly found that the ability to repeat the background subtraction operation after the experiment has concluded with a powerful set of options of background datafile, offset compensation, and data processing is invaluable in many cases. In addition, the quality of the background subtraction and fits can be improved with a number of methods. We have found SquidLab to be a powerful asset in our own physics research and that of many of our collaborators and believe it will prove likewise to a wide variety of condensed-matter physics and materials chemistry researchers. |
| URL | https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5137820 |
| Title | Research data supporting "Magnetic properties of lanthanide orthoborates, LnBO3, Ln = Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Yb" |
| Description | The raw data used for preparation of the figures in the main text and supplementary information of the aforementioned manuscript is enclosed. More details are enclosed in the readme file, data files for each figure are located in the respective folder |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | Research data supporting "Magnetic properties of monoclinic lanthanide metaborates, Ln(BO2)3, Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb" |
| Description | The raw data used for preparation of the figures in the main text and supplementary information of the aforementioned manuscript is enclosed. More details are enclosed in the readme file, data files for each figure are located in the respective folder |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | Research data supporting "Relieving the frustration through Mn3+ substitution in Holmium Gallium Garnet " |
| Description | The raw data used for preparation of the figures in the main text and supplementary information of the aforementioned manuscript is enclosed. More details are enclosed in the readme file, data files for each figure are located in the respective folder. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | Research data supporting "Sensitivity of magnetic properties to chemical pressure in lanthanide garnets Ln3A2X3O12, Ln = Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, A = Ga, Sc, In, Te, X = Ga, Al, Li" |
| Description | The raw data used for preparation of the figures in the main text and supplementary information of the aforementioned manuscript is enclosed. More details are enclosed in the readme file, data files for each figure are located in the respective folder. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Title | Research data supporting 'Enhanced magnetocaloric effect from Cr substitution in Ising lanthanide gallium garnets Ln3CrGa4O12 (Ln = Tb, Dy, Ho)' |
| Description | The raw data used for preparation of the figures in the main text and supplementary information of the aforementioned manuscript is enclosed. More details are enclosed in the readme file, data files for each figure are located in the respective folder |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Description | User Community for EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in Maxwell Centre |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Department of Chemistry |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of access to EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, along with concommitant technical support. Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of physical concepts in condensed matter physics, measurement techniques, knowledge of specific materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of measurement techniques, expertise in specific materials research. |
| Impact | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite has been designed to house facilities for post-synthetic characterisation and versatile properties measurement of complex functional materials. The majority of equipment has already been installed, and a technician is currently being hired to expand operations. State-of-the-art measurements are performed in the suite by bespoke equipment specifically designed to be operated as a facility for a broad user-base within the University, other UK HEIs and as a resource for an industrial user-base. Users of the suite already include groups from Chemistry, Materials Science, and Earth Sciences departments within the University of Cambridge. The userbase is being rapidly expanded. The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is enabling wide reaching collaborations between a multitude of groups to progress from directed materials discovery and characterisation to usage for new technological applications. The facilities for materials characterisation address measurement needs of materials whose properties are determined by 'strongly correlated electrons', the high electron density and tuneability of which maximise potential for functionality. Measurement technologies at the core of strongly correlated materials have broad applications, and bring significant value to a much wider set of materials programs. Publications have already appeared that reflect research made by each of the various user groups on a breadth of materials spanning high temperature superconductors, frustrated magnets, perovskite multiferroics, battery materials. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | User Community for EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in Maxwell Centre |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Department of Earth Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of access to EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, along with concommitant technical support. Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of physical concepts in condensed matter physics, measurement techniques, knowledge of specific materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of measurement techniques, expertise in specific materials research. |
| Impact | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite has been designed to house facilities for post-synthetic characterisation and versatile properties measurement of complex functional materials. The majority of equipment has already been installed, and a technician is currently being hired to expand operations. State-of-the-art measurements are performed in the suite by bespoke equipment specifically designed to be operated as a facility for a broad user-base within the University, other UK HEIs and as a resource for an industrial user-base. Users of the suite already include groups from Chemistry, Materials Science, and Earth Sciences departments within the University of Cambridge. The userbase is being rapidly expanded. The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is enabling wide reaching collaborations between a multitude of groups to progress from directed materials discovery and characterisation to usage for new technological applications. The facilities for materials characterisation address measurement needs of materials whose properties are determined by 'strongly correlated electrons', the high electron density and tuneability of which maximise potential for functionality. Measurement technologies at the core of strongly correlated materials have broad applications, and bring significant value to a much wider set of materials programs. Publications have already appeared that reflect research made by each of the various user groups on a breadth of materials spanning high temperature superconductors, frustrated magnets, perovskite multiferroics, battery materials. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | User Community for EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in Maxwell Centre |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of access to EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, along with concommitant technical support. Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of physical concepts in condensed matter physics, measurement techniques, knowledge of specific materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of measurement techniques, expertise in specific materials research. |
| Impact | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite has been designed to house facilities for post-synthetic characterisation and versatile properties measurement of complex functional materials. The majority of equipment has already been installed, and a technician is currently being hired to expand operations. State-of-the-art measurements are performed in the suite by bespoke equipment specifically designed to be operated as a facility for a broad user-base within the University, other UK HEIs and as a resource for an industrial user-base. Users of the suite already include groups from Chemistry, Materials Science, and Earth Sciences departments within the University of Cambridge. The userbase is being rapidly expanded. The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is enabling wide reaching collaborations between a multitude of groups to progress from directed materials discovery and characterisation to usage for new technological applications. The facilities for materials characterisation address measurement needs of materials whose properties are determined by 'strongly correlated electrons', the high electron density and tuneability of which maximise potential for functionality. Measurement technologies at the core of strongly correlated materials have broad applications, and bring significant value to a much wider set of materials programs. Publications have already appeared that reflect research made by each of the various user groups on a breadth of materials spanning high temperature superconductors, frustrated magnets, perovskite multiferroics, battery materials. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | User Community for EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in Maxwell Centre |
| Organisation | University of Kent |
| Department | School of Physical Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of access to EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, along with concommitant technical support. Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of physical concepts in condensed matter physics, measurement techniques, knowledge of specific materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of measurement techniques, expertise in specific materials research. |
| Impact | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite has been designed to house facilities for post-synthetic characterisation and versatile properties measurement of complex functional materials. The majority of equipment has already been installed, and a technician is currently being hired to expand operations. State-of-the-art measurements are performed in the suite by bespoke equipment specifically designed to be operated as a facility for a broad user-base within the University, other UK HEIs and as a resource for an industrial user-base. Users of the suite already include groups from Chemistry, Materials Science, and Earth Sciences departments within the University of Cambridge. The userbase is being rapidly expanded. The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is enabling wide reaching collaborations between a multitude of groups to progress from directed materials discovery and characterisation to usage for new technological applications. The facilities for materials characterisation address measurement needs of materials whose properties are determined by 'strongly correlated electrons', the high electron density and tuneability of which maximise potential for functionality. Measurement technologies at the core of strongly correlated materials have broad applications, and bring significant value to a much wider set of materials programs. Publications have already appeared that reflect research made by each of the various user groups on a breadth of materials spanning high temperature superconductors, frustrated magnets, perovskite multiferroics, battery materials. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | User Community for EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in Maxwell Centre |
| Organisation | University of St Andrews |
| Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of access to EPSRC Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite, along with concommitant technical support. Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of physical concepts in condensed matter physics, measurement techniques, knowledge of specific materials. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration and sharing of specialised knowledge of measurement techniques, expertise in specific materials research. |
| Impact | The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite has been designed to house facilities for post-synthetic characterisation and versatile properties measurement of complex functional materials. The majority of equipment has already been installed, and a technician is currently being hired to expand operations. State-of-the-art measurements are performed in the suite by bespoke equipment specifically designed to be operated as a facility for a broad user-base within the University, other UK HEIs and as a resource for an industrial user-base. Users of the suite already include groups from Chemistry, Materials Science, and Earth Sciences departments within the University of Cambridge. The userbase is being rapidly expanded. The Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite is enabling wide reaching collaborations between a multitude of groups to progress from directed materials discovery and characterisation to usage for new technological applications. The facilities for materials characterisation address measurement needs of materials whose properties are determined by 'strongly correlated electrons', the high electron density and tuneability of which maximise potential for functionality. Measurement technologies at the core of strongly correlated materials have broad applications, and bring significant value to a much wider set of materials programs. Publications have already appeared that reflect research made by each of the various user groups on a breadth of materials spanning high temperature superconductors, frustrated magnets, perovskite multiferroics, battery materials. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Title | SquidLab - A user-friendly program for background subtraction and fitting of magnetization data |
| Description | SquidLab is an open-source program free to download for academic use with a full user-friendly graphical interface for performing flexible and robust background subtraction and dipole fitting on magnetization data. For magnetic samples with small moment sizes or sample environments with large or asymmetric magnetic backgrounds, it can become necessary to separate background and sample contributions to each measured raw voltage measurement before fitting the dipole signal to extract magnetic moments. Originally designed for use with pressure cells on a Quantum Design MPMS3 SQUID magnetometer, SquidLab is a modular object-oriented platform implemented in Matlab with a range of importers for different widely available magnetometer systems (including MPMS, MPMS-XL, MPMS-IQuantum, MPMS3, and S700X models) and has been tested with a broad variety of background and signal types. The software allows background subtraction of baseline signals, signal preprocessing, and performing fits to dipole data using Levenberg-Marquardt non-linear least squares or a singular value decomposition linear algebra algorithm that excels at picking out noisy or weak dipole signals. A plugin system allows users to easily extend the built-in functionality with their own importers, processes, or fitting algorithms. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) magnetometer, ubiquitous to physical sciences labs worldwide, is an incredibly sensitive instrument capable of measuring magnetic moments down to the absolute quantum limit. SQUIDs are used within cryostats allowing control over temperature and magnetic field to accurately measure the magnetic properties of a huge range of materials and systems from millikelvin temperatures to well above room temperature and in large magnetic fields. An unavoidable problem, however, is that the sample must be mounted or supported in some manner-often bulky or complex sample environments are required in the sample region-and the SQUID coils will measure both the sample and the "background" from this mechanism. In many cases, the magnetic moment of the sample will be so much larger than this background-which is, of course, chosen to be as non-magnetic as possible-that the background can simply be disregarded. However, a variety of experiments commonly push the boundary of this signal/noise ratio: very small or magnetically dilute samples, diamagnetic samples that must be separated from the diamagnetic sample holder, and sample environments with large magnetic background contributions such as pressure cells or NMR liquid vials to name a few. These large, sometimes asymmetric, magnetic background responses can also change and shift position with temperature-making simplistic background modelling and subtraction impossible. The concept of subtracting the background signal prior to dipole fitting or other data extraction techniques is well-established, but currently no software tools exist to make this kind of operation accessible. A SQUID magnetometer works by moving a (magnetic dipole) sample along the z axis of its coaxial superconducting coils and measuring the induced voltage at various positions along the axis. This then results in a voltage-position curve that is fitted with a dipole form to give a magnetic moment for the datapoint at a fixed temperature and field. This assumes that the recorded signal results indeed from a simple dipole. This does not hold in the case of a significant background in which the raw voltage signal will not typically be of this form. The raw voltages must, instead, be subtracted at each position, then the result fitted with the dipole equation to give a background-subtracted magnetic moment m. The Quantum Design Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS and MPMS3) models form the most widely adopted commercial SQUID magnetometers. SquidLab was primarily designed and tested with these systems, but importers for other systems such as the Cryogenic Ltd. S700X cryostat have also been developed (the user can easily implement their own custom importer plugins-most simply by modifying one of the nine included importers)-and the operating procedures will be mostly equivalent. SquidLab is an open-source program free to download under an Academic License, written and run in Matlab (2019b and above) with both powerful command-line and scripting tools and a full user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for performing flexible and robust background subtraction and dipole fitting on magnetization data. Data collected as a function of either temperature T or magnetic field H are supported. A key feature of the design is a plugin system, which allows users to easily extend the built-in functionality with their own importers, processes, or fitting algorithms, which are then automatically included into the GUI with rich help and tooltip text. The same Levenberg-Marquardt dipole fitting algorithm used internally in MPMSs is implemented, as well as a singular value decomposition (SVD) linear algebra algorithm that excels at picking out noisy or weak dipole signals. An easy to follow step-by-step GUI is provided to quickly and easily perform background subtraction and fitting operations and to view and export the resulting data, but a set of command-line and scripting APIs are also provided to allow automated batch processing of large amounts of data. The whole operation of processing a file through the GUI typically takes less than a minute. While the older generation of MPMSs included a built-in background subtraction option, the latest MPMS3 instruments have no such functionality and an external solution is required. Even when a built-in option is available, we have repeatedly found that the ability to repeat the background subtraction operation after the experiment has concluded with a powerful set of options of background datafile, offset compensation, and data processing is invaluable in many cases. In addition, the quality of the background subtraction and fits can be improved with a number of methods. We have found SquidLab to be a powerful asset in our own physics research and that of many of our collaborators and believe it will prove likewise to a wide variety of condensed-matter physics and materials chemistry researchers. |
| URL | https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5137820 |
| Description | Cambridge ECS Student Chapter Presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Cambridge Science Festival Talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outreach presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Cambridge Zero Research Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at Cambridge Zero Research Symposium: Zero-Carbon Energy Transformation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Combined Inorganic Chemistry Seminar - MPI Dresden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | HE plus event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | HEplus talk and activity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | ISIS FAP 4 - chair |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Chair of ISIS facilities access panel - excitations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021 |
| Description | ISIS FAP 4 - member |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Member of ISIS peer review panel - FAP 4 Excitations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019,2020,2021 |
| Description | Outreach Presentation - Cambridge Physics Centre :Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Lecture to local 6th form students on concepts in magnetism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/programme/cpc/cpcarchive |
| Description | Physical Crystallography Group Conference talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research Talk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation and Activity at a Winter School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Leadership Programme on Solving Global Challenges GCRF COMPASS Cambridge Winter School |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Presentation at 2nd UK-China Clean Energy Utilisation / Energy Storage Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 2nd UK-China Clean Energy Utilisation / Energy Storage Conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | QMAT3 presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at QMAT3 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.bose.res.in/Conferences/QMAT2020/index.html |
| Description | Shivaji College Dehli - presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to undergraduates studying Materials Science at Shivaji College |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Talk at Supergen Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at a workshop |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | UCL - Joint Chemistry and Physics Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | University of Cambridge-The University of Tokyo: Workshop on Advanced Materials for Energy: Workshop on Advanced Materials for Energy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on complex oxides for energy storage |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://sp.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/UTokyo_Cam/events/coming-up-advanced-materials-in-energy/ |
| Description | Warwick - Departmental Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Webinar presentation - Thin Film Solid State Batteries |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at a webinar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Workshop - presentation and discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lead session on development of new Quantum Materials |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |