Research Interests
I am a condensed matter physicist who carries out experiments on a variety of different solid and liquid crystal systems. Our primary experimental methods are neutron and synchrotron x-ray scattering. We typically synthesize our own materials and characterize their macroscopic properties with standard techniques. Our focus historically has been on complex materials whose properties are determined in a fundamental way by the effects of dimensionality, quantum fluctuations and/or microscopic quenched disorder. Two systems which we are currently exploring are high temperature superconductors and smectic liquid crystals embedded in dilute silica gel networks. The former is a well researched problem which nevertheless is proving to be remarkably difficult to unravel at a fundamental level. Our own emphasis has been on the microscopic antiferromagnetic fluctuations and their interaction with the superconductivity. The latter represents a new area of research in which disorder and dimensionality effects play a central role. We are currently trying to gather enough basic empirical information to be able to elucidate the fundamental principles which determine the properties of these novel gels.
Membership Type
Member
Election Year
2004
Primary Section
Section 33: Applied Physical Sciences
Secondary Section
Section 13: Physics