Condensed Matter Physics Group

 University of Leeds 

The Leeds group has, for more than a decade, been producing metallic ultra-thin films by sputtering and MBE.   Apart from multilayers we fabricate tunnel junctions by plasma oxidation, spin valves, organo-metallic hybrids and superconductor/ferromagnetic junctions.  LEEDS has considerable expertise in characterising films by RHEED, x-ray and neutron reflectivity, VSM, MOKE and SPM and specialises in electron transport, both theory and experimental work.  Theoretical models to simulate transport in nanoscale structures including magnetoresistance and spin relaxation effects have been developed.

The group have made numerous recent contributions to the field, publishing 6 papers in PRL in the last 4 years, and recently invited to speak at the MRS meeting (Boston, 2003), the Kobe-Oxford Workshop (Kobe, 2003), the MMM meeting (Seattle, 2001), a COST workshop on mesoscopic electronics (Grenoble, 2001) and the joint CMMP/CMD meeting in (Brighton, 2002). They are currently funded by EPSRC to study hot electron-spin injection, magnetic roughness, exchange bias, and ferromagnet-superconductor hybrid multilayers. Leeds co-ordinates the EU FP6 RTN ULTRASMOOTH and are partners in the STReP SFINX.

Role in the network

• Transport measurements: various rigs: up to 9T, variable field orientation, 0.3K – 500K, CPP
• Simulation of transport in multilayer structures
• Preparation of sputtered and MBE samples.
• Network management and co-ordination

Personnel

Prof B J Hickey (Head of Condensed Matter Group, Head of School

Dr C H Marrows (Reader in Condensed Matter Physics)

Dr G Burnell (Lecturer and EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow)