Lectureship Opportunities
Information on lectureships currently advertised in quantum ordering can be found here
PhD Opportunities
We are looking to take on PhD students in 2012 based at both Edinburgh and St Andrews.
The aim is to establish through accurate experimental investigation how quantum critical behaviour in different materials leads to the formation of novel quantum ordered ground states, including unusual types of superconductivity.
The available projects cover all aspects of our research, including the following:
- Growing high quality crystals of new materials
- Neutron and X-ray scattering
- Design and development of low temperature experiments
- Design and use of high-pressure cells
- Making measurements at extreme conditions of low temperature, high magentic field and high pressure
- Theory
PhD Funding
SUPA prize studentships: Open to all applicants irrespective of current country of residence. Applications must be completed by the closing date of 20 January 2012.
CM-DTC :The Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter Physics offers stuentships for a 4 year PhD program. This is targeted at UK residents but with some funding opportunities for non-UK residents. There is no formal closing date for applications but early application is recommended. Applications for the DTC can be made following the same procedure as for SUPA prize studentships.
EPSRC-DTA studentships. Targeted at UK residents. 3.5 year PhD. Apply following the links on the University of Edinburgh Physics website. There is no fixed closing date to apply for these places (but early application is recommended as places are subject to availability).
Project Descriptions for PhD positions starting in 2012
For more information and enquiries about PhD projects please contact
(1) Magnetic measurements to probe unconventional superconductors (Supervisors: Dr Ed Yelland and Prof Andrew Huxley): this project is based in St Andrews.
Magnetism and superconductivity are intimately connected in many so-called heavy fermion metals. A particularly dramatic case is URhGe, where two distinct superconducting regions exist – one coexisting with ferromagnetism, and the other at extremely strong applied magnetic fields that are sufficient to destroy conventional forms of superconductivity. This project will involve developing sensitive heat capacity and magnetic measurement apparatus that will operate at extremes of low-temperature and high-magnetic field, and apply them to study URhGe and other related materials. The aims are both to gain a deeper understanding of how magnetic pairing may lead to superconductivity and to drive the search for new superconducting materials.
The project is an integral part of a major research effort to study quantum criticality and unusual quantum ordered phases using a variety of magnetic, electrical and thermal measurement techniques. The apparatus in St Andrews includes a state-of-the-art dilution refrigerator (commissioned December 2007) with a base temperature 10 millikelvin and equipped with a 17 tesla magnet.
The focus for the project is on magnetic measurements including heat capacity, torque magnetometry, field gradient magnetometry and a.c. susceptibility. By combining torque and field-gradient results, the vector magnetic moment can be determined as a function of magnetic field. This will give a complete phenomenological (Ginzburg-Landau) description of the magnetism in the region superconductivity occurs, and will provide detailed information about the nature of the magnetic interactions that are important for superconductivity. Another important component of the work will be to use quantum oscillations in the different measurements to study the Fermi surface and how it changes approaching and crossing quantum phase transitions.
(2) Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Spatially Modulated Magnetic Phases Near to Quantum Criticality (Supervisors: Dr Andrew Green (University College London) and Prof Andrew Huxley.
The possibility of magnetic spin-crystals formed by the superposition of helical spin modulations with different wave-vectors has been a subject of much recent experimental and theoretical work.
Signatures of phases with this property have been found in an array of materials including MnSi and Sr3Ru2O7. On the theoretical side, there are several ways in which such states might form. These include the formation of spiral modulation due to a Dzyalosinskii-Moriya spin-orbit interaction in itinerant magnets, residual, small-wavevector nesting due to the electron dispersion in a lattice [1,2] and from competing interactions that can give rise to a series of transitions forming a Devil's Staircase [3]. Perhaps the most intriguing suggestion - and one that has most captured the imagination of condensed matter theorists of late - is that an itinerant system on the brink of a quantum phase transition might possess an intrinsic instability to the formation of modulated magnetic phases [4]. In any particular material, one or more of these effects may operate with the possibility of a complicated interplay between them.
This project aims to investigate the phenomenon of spatially modulated magnetism from both an experimental and theoretical perspective. We will use techniques of quantum many-body physics and field theory to investigate the possibility of spatially modulated magnetism in real systems. These investigations will be carried out in concert with neutron scattering experiments to provide inspiration for and validate this theory. The experimental part will include growing the crystals for these experiments as well as performing the measurements. We anticipate that a student will spend approximately 2/3 of their time on theory and 1/3 on experimental work, working both in Edinburgh and St Andrews as well as at international facilities.
[1] A. M. Berridge, A. G. Green, S. A. Grigera and B. D. Simons “A Magnetic Analogue of the of the FFLO state: Inhomogeneous Instabilities Near to Tricritical Points” Physical Review Letters 102, 149903 (2009).
[2] G. J. Conduit, A. G. Green, and B. D. Simons, “Inhomogeneous phase formation on the border of itinerant ferromagnetism” Physical Review Letters 103, 207201 (2009) [spotlighted in Physics 2, 93 (2009)]
[3] P. Bak & J. von Boehm, "Ising model with solitons, phasons, and 'the devil's staircase'", Phys Rev B 21 5297 (1980)
[4] J. Rech C.Pépin, V.Chubukov, "Quantum critical behaviour in intinerant electron systems: Eliashberg theory and instability of a ferromagentic quantum critical point" Phys Rev B 74 195126 (2006)
(3) Measurement of physical properties at very high pressures (Supervisor: Dr Konstantin Kamenev and Prof Andrew Huxley): based in Edinburgh
High pressure can be used to tune the properties of many materials to quantum critical points, often leading to the formation of new exotic electronic states. To study the properties of these states a variety of measurements at high pressure are required. However, due to the intricate nature of the measurements and/or the particular requirements of the materials, suitable high-pressure equipment is often not available commercially and needs to be developed. Most of physical property measurements that would most contribute to identifying and improving our understanding of the physics of the new states has indeed never been implemented at high pressure before.This project is focused on instrumentation development for several such techniques and their application to study quantum critical phenomena both in the laboratory and at large scale neutron scattering facilities at extreme pressures, temperatures, magnetic and electric fields. It combines studying some interesting physics with gaining transferrable skills in computer aided design and finite element analysis.The project is based in the interdisciplinary Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions and PhD registration could be in either the School of Physics & Astronomy or in the School of Engineering depending on the preference and interests of the student.