Professor Stephen Blundell

Abstract:

Muon spectroscopy has become a leading tool for the investigation of local magnetic fields in condensed matter physics, finding applications in the study of superconductivity, magnetism, ionic diffusion in battery materials, and numerous other fields. Though the muon yields quantitative information about the material, this can only be fully interpreted if the nature of the muon site and its stability is fully understood. Electronic structure calculations are of paramount importance for providing this understanding, particularly through a group of techniques that has become known as DFT +μ, density functional theory including the presence of the implanted muon. We describe how these electronic structure calculations can be used to underpin muon spectroscopy, and some examples of the science that follows from this, as well as some of the available software tools that are currently being developed.

Abstract:

An emerging concept for identification of different types of spin liquids [C. Broholm et al., Science 367, eaay0668 (2020)] is through the use of spontaneous spin noise [S. Chatterjee, J. F. Rodriguez-Nieva, E. Demler, Phys. Rev. B 99, 104425 (2019)]. Here, we develop spin noise spectroscopy for spin liquid studies by considering Ca10Cr7O28, a material hypothesized to be either a quantum or a spiral spin liquid (SSL). By enhancing techniques introduced for magnetic monopole noise studies [R. Dusad et al., Nature 571, 234–239 (2019)], we measure the time and temperature dependence of spontaneous flux Φ(t, T) and thus magnetization M(t, T) of Ca10Cr7O28 samples. The resulting power spectral density of magnetization noise SMω, T reveals intense spin fluctuations with SMω, T∝ω-α(T) and 0.84