The Barnett Effect and cool measurement technique

 I've written before about the Einstein-deHaas effect - supposedly Einstein's only experimental result (see here, too) - a fantastic proof that spin really is angular momentum.  In that experiment, a magnetic field is flipped, causing the magnetization of a ferromagnet to reorient itself to align with the new field direction.  While Einstein and deHaas thought about amperean current loops (the idea that magnetization came from microscopic circulating currents that we would now call orbital magnetism), we now know that magnetization in many materials comes from the spin of the electrons.  When those spins reorient, angular momentum has to be conserved somehow, so it is transferred to/from the lattice, resulting in a mechanical torque that can be measured.

Less well-known is the complement, the Barnett effect.  Take a ferromagnetic material and rotate it. The mechanical rotational angular momentum gets transferred (via rather complicated physics, it turns out) at some rate to the spins of the electrons, causing the material to develop a magnetization along the rotational axis.  This seems amazing to me now, knowing about spin.  It must've really seemed nearly miraculous back in 1915 when it was measured by Barnett.

So, how did Barnett actually measure this, with the technology available in 1915?  Here's the basic diagram of the scheme from the original paper:

There are two rods that can each be rotated about its long axis.  The rods pass through counterwound coils, so that if there is a differential change in magnetic flux through the two coils, that generates a current that flows through the fluxmeter.  The Grassot fluxmeter is a fancy galvanometer - basically a coil suspended on a torsion fiber between poles of a magnet.  Current through that coil leads to a torque on the fiber, which is detected in this case by deflection of a beam of light bounced off a mirror mounted on the fiber.  The paper describes the setup in great detail, and getting this to work clearly involved meticulous experimental technique and care.  It's impressive how people were able to do this kind of work without all the modern electronics that we take for granted.  Respect.

Rice ECE assistant professor position in Quantum Engineering

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University invites applications for a tenure track Assistant Professor Position in the area of experimental quantum engineering, broadly defined. Under exceptional circumstances, more experienced senior candidates may be considered. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to: quantum computation, quantum sensing, quantum simulation, and quantum networks.

The department has a vibrant research program in novel, leading-edge research areas, has a strong culture of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research with great national and international visibility, and is ranked #1 nationally in faculty productivity.* With multiple faculty involved in quantum materials, quantum devices, optics and photonics, and condensed matter physics, Rice ECE considers these areas as focal points of quantum engineering research in the coming decade. The successful applicant will be required to teach undergraduate courses and build a successful research program.

The successful candidate will have a strong commitment to teaching, advising, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds. Consistent with the National Research Council’s report, Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond, we are seeking candidates who have demonstrated ability to lead and work in research groups that “… [integrate] the knowledge, tools, and ways of thinking…” from engineering, mathematics, and computational, natural, social and behavioral sciences to solve societal problems using a convergent approach.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, statements of research and teaching interests, and at least three references through the Rice faculty application website: http://jobs.rice.edu/postings/24582. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2021; review of applications will commence November 15, 2020. The position is expected to be available July 1, 2021. Additional information can be found on our website: http://www.ece.rice.edu.

Rice University is a private university with a strong reputation for academic excellence in both undergraduate and graduate education and research. Located in the economically dynamic, internationally diverse city of Houston, Texas, 4th largest city in the U.S., Rice attracts outstanding undergraduate and graduate students from across the nation and around the world. Rice provides a stimulating environment for research, teaching, and joint projects with industry.

The George R. Brown School of Engineering ranks among the top 20 of undergraduate engineering programs (US News & World Report) and is strongly committed to nurturing the aspirations of faculty, staff, and students in an inclusive environment. Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. We seek greater representation of women, minorities, people with disabilities, and veterans in disciplines in which they have historically been underrepresented; to attract international students from a wider range of countries and backgrounds; to accelerate progress in building a faculty and staff who are diverse in background and thought; and we support an inclusive environment that fosters interaction and understanding within our diverse community.

*http://news.rice.edu/2007/11/30/rices-electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-programs-rank-no-1/ Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Tenure-track faculty position in Astronomy at Rice University

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in astronomy in the general field of galactic star formation, including the formation and evolution of planetary systems. We seek an outstanding theoretical, observational, or computational astronomer whose research will complement and extend existing activities in these areas within the Department. In addition to developing an independent and vigorous research program, the successful applicant will be expected to teach, on average, one undergraduate or graduate course each semester, and contribute to the service missions of the Department and University. The Department anticipates making the appointment at the assistant professor level. A Ph.D. in astronomy/astrophysics or related field is required. 

Applications for this position must be submitted electronically at http://jobs.rice.edu/postings/24588. Applicants will be required to submit the following: (1) cover letter; (2) curriculum vitae; (3) statement of research; (4) statement on teaching, mentoring, and outreach; (5) PDF copies of up to three publications; and (6) the names, affiliations, and email addresses of three professional references. Rice University is committed to a culturally diverse intellectual community. In this spirit, we particularly welcome applications from all genders and members of historically underrepresented groups who exemplify diverse cultural experiences and who are especially qualified to mentor and advise all members of our diverse student population. We will begin reviewing applications December 1, 2020. To receive full consideration, all application materials must be received by January 1, 2021. The appointment is expected to begin in July, 2021. 

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

The power of a timely collaboration

Sometimes it takes a while to answer a scientific question, and sometimes that answer ends up being a bit unexpected.  Three years ago, I wrote about a paper from our group, where we had found, much to our surprise, that the thermoelectric response of polycrystalline gold wires varied a lot as a function of position within the wire, even though the metal was, by every reasonable definition, a good, electrically homogeneous material.  (We were able to observe this by using a focused laser as a scannable heat source, and measuring the open-circuit photovoltage of the device as a function of the laser position.)  At the time, I wrote "Annealing the wires does change the voltage pattern as well as smoothing it out.  This is a pretty good indicator that the grain boundaries really are important here."

What would be the best way to test the idea that somehow the grain boundaries within the wire were responsible for this effect?  Well, the natural thought experiment would be to do the same measurement in a single crystal gold wire, and then ideally do a measurement in a wire with, say, a single grain boundary in a known location.  

Fig. 4 from this paper

Shortly thereafter, I had the good fortune to be talking with Prof. Jonathan Fan at Stanford.  His group had, in fact, come up with a clever way to create single-crystal gold wires, as shown at right.  Basically they create a wire via lithography, encapsulate it in silicon oxide so that the wire is sitting in its own personal crucible, and then melt/recrystallize the wire.  Moreover, they could build upon that technique as in this paper, and create bicrystals with a single grain boundary.  Focused ion beam could then be used to trim these to the desired width (though in principle that can disturb the surface).

We embarked on a rewarding collaboration that turned out to be a long, complicated path of measuring many many device structures of various shapes, sizes, and dimensions.  My student Charlotte Evans, measuring the photothermoelectric (PTE) response of these, worked closely with members of Prof. Fan's group - Rui Yang grew and prepared devices, and Lucia Gan did many hours of back-scatter electron diffraction measurements and analysis, for comparison with the photovoltage maps.  My student Mahdiyeh Abbasi learned the intricacies of finite element modeling to see what kind of spatial variation of Seebeck coefficient \(S\) would be needed to reproduce the photovoltage maps.  

From Fig. 1 of our new paper.  Panel g upper shows the local crystal
misorientation as found from electron back-scatter diffraction, while 
panel g lower shows a spatial map of the PTE response.  The two 
patterns definitely resemble each other (panel h), and this is seen
consistently across many devices.

A big result of this was published this week in PNAS.  The surprising result:  Individual high-angle grain boundaries produce a PTE signal so small as to be unresolvable in our measurement system.  In contrast, though, the PTE measurement could readily detect tiny changes in Seebeck response that correlate with small local misorientations of the local single crystal structure.  The wire is still a single crystal, but it contains dislocations and disclinations and stacking faults and good old-fashioned strain due to interactions with the surroundings when it crystallized.  Some of these seem to produce detectable changes in thermoelectric response.  When annealed, the PTE features smooth out and reduce in magnitude, as some (but not all) of the structural defects and strain can anneal away.  

So, it turns out it's likely not the grain boundaries that cause Seebeck variations in these nanostructures - instead it's likely residual strain and structural defects from the thin film deposition process, something to watch out for in general for devices made by lithography and thin film processing.  Also, opto-electronic measurements of thermoelectric response are sensitive enough to detect very subtle structural inhomogeneities, an effect that can in principle be leveraged for things like defect detection in manufactured structures.  It took a while to unravel, but it is satisfying to get answers and see the power of the measurement technique.

Materials and popular material

This past week was a great one for my institution, as the Robert A. Welch Foundation and Rice University announced the creation of the Welch Institute for Advanced Materials.  Exactly how this is going to take shape and grow is still in the works, but the stated goals of materials-by-design and making Rice and Houston a global destination for advanced materials research are very exciting.  

Long-time readers of this blog know my view that the amazing physics of materials is routinely overlooked in part because materials are ubiquitous - for example, the fact that the Pauli principle in some real sense is what is keeping you from falling through the floor right now.  I'm working on refining a few key concepts/topics that I think are translatable to the general reading public.  Emergence, symmetry, phases of matter, the most important physical law most people have never heard about (the Pauli principle), quasiparticles, the quantum world (going full circle from the apparent onset of the classical to using collective systems to return to quantum degrees of freedom in qubits).   Any big topics I'm leaving out?