Graduate Student: Ram Seshadri Group
Materials Research Laboratory: Office 2244
University of California, Santa Barbara 93106-5121
Phone: n/a, Fax: 805 893 8797
email: bmelot at mrl.ucsb.edu
Structure-Property Relations in
Multifunctional Transition Metal Oxides
My research broadly focuses on understanding the interplay between spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom in order to better design new and improve existing functional materials. Currently my main focus is on synthesizing and characterizing oxide based materials which incorporate novel properties focusing most heavily on magnetism and mangetoelectric coupling. Magnetoelectric materials display a coupling between the spin and lattice degrees of freedom such that changes in the magnetism can result in structural effects which may give rise to an electric polarization or likewise exposure to an electric field can have observable effects on the magnetism. I use a large variety of synthetic preparation in the course of my work, including high temperature solid state routes and hydrothermal routes. I make extensive use of powder x-ray and neutron diffraction to characterize phase purity and magnetic structures as well as a variety of software packages such as VASP, Stuttgart-LMTO, and Quantum-ESPRESSO to understand the electronic structure.
Current Collaborators:
Miles Stoudenmire (UCSB) Web
Emmanuelle Suard (D2B ILL) Web
Serena Corr (UCSB) Web
Gavin Lawes (Wayne State University) Web
Arthur P. Ramirez (Columbia) Web
Leon Balents (UCSB) Web