PhD project: Very High Pressures

Project description

High pressures are often needed to tune materials to quantum critical points at which new state formation occurs. The application of magentic field and the rotation of pressurised samples in the field can provide additional tuning. Rotation in a field is also essential for quantum oscillation studies to map out Fermi-surfaces. The project will develop pressure cells and instrumentation for these measurements and use this to study various quantum critical phenomena. It will build on (i) further development of miniature turnbuckle diamond anvil cells to be used on our low-temperature high-field rotatable platform and (ii) new designs for the piezo-electric rotators to rotate the cells at very low temperature. The emphasis here will be on developing apparatus and making measurements such as Hall resistivity and susceptibility. The use of designer diamonds will be explored. The project affords the possibility of making exciting discoveries probing materials where new state formation is expected to be induced withpressure and field as well as acquiring valuable transferrable skills in CAD (computer aided design) and FEA (finite element analysis) calculations. The project would be based in the new CSEC building and PhD registration could be in either physics or engineering schools depending on the preference of the candidate.

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