HEMI Colloquium: Prof. Natalia Drichko, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Strongly correlated and magnetic materials with structural disorder: Raman scattering study

One of the hot topics in condensed matter physics are materials where interactions between electrons lead to insulating behavior at low temperatures, and magnetically ordered state for Mott insulators. A presence of structural disorder in these materials affects the resulting ground state. We study materials with strong electronic correlations using inelastic light scattering technique, so-called Raman scattering. Using examples of magnetic SrCr2O4 and NiGa2S4, and Kondo insulator SmB6, I will demonstrate how we apply Raman scattering in order to understand the ground state of these materials, as well to identify a presence of structural disorder which is not accessible by other experimental techniques.

Seminar will be held at 2 PM in Malone G 33/35 with refreshments to follow.