Properties of Non-Collinear Antiferromagnetic Films and Heterostructures

The project is about the study of the Mn-antiperovskite Nitrides family Mn3AN (A = Rh, Pd, Ag, Co, Ni, Zn, Ga, In, Sn) which show potential in applications as varied as information storage, energy harvesting and refrigeration. Primary EPSRC area is energy efficient ICT.
The family of manganese nitrides possesses a non-collinear magnetic structure, with antiferromagnetic Mn spins arranged in a triangular lattice in the (111) plane, which leads to geometric frustration in the unstrained cubic lattice. In the project, thin films of Mn3AN will be grown and tested for compositional purity using X-ray diffraction and imaged using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). They will then be characterised using transport measurements, magnetometry and magneto-optic Kerr effect spectroscopy (MOKE) to understand their magnetic structure. The project includes a collaboration between Imperial College and Hitachi Cambridge to investigate the spin thermal properties, with a view towards using the materials for power generation. In particular, the anomalous Nernst effect will be investigated, where an applied thermal gradient generates a potential difference across the sample due to the Berry curvature at the Fermi energy.