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16 Aug 2023
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Prof Geetha Balakrishnan, Department of Physics, University of Warwick.
In person: Seminar room G29, New Horizons Bld, Monash University, CLAYTON
Also shared via Zoom ID 860 1904 3236 / passcode 12345
Recently, there has been considerable interest in the physics of magnetic skyrmions due to their huge potential for use in spintronic devices, such as in racetrack memories and logic devices. Magnetic skyrmions are topological magnetic spin structures originally identified in the B20 class of materials. More recently, skyrmions have been found and investigated in other non-centrosymmetric classes of materials and in centrosymmetric intermetallics. To make headway in experiments to understand the basic physics of these skyrmion materials, high quality single crystals are essential. This has motivated us to embark upon a study of several classes of skyrmion materials and to explore a wide composition range of each of the family of compounds. The materials investigated range from centrosymmetric intermetallics such as Gd2PdSi3, GdRu2Si2, magnetic layered van der Waals materials such as Fe3GeTe2 , to a large family of inter-calated transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs).
In this talk, I will present an overview of the materials characteristics of several of the above materials including the challenges in the synthesis of these materials using a variety of techniques at Warwick. Investigations of the effects of substitution and the resulting structural order/disorder on the existence of the skyrmion phase in these crystals sheds light on the origin and the tuning of the skyrmion lattices. The study of their important structure–property correlations is vital to the understanding of these materials for potential future device applications.
Prof. Balakrishnan’s research team focuses on the growth of single crystals of superconductors, magnetic, and related materials by a variety of techniques, including a large program of work using optical furnaces for the floating zone technique.