Penn State Magnetic Materials Group

Prof. Peter Schiffer's research group works in two rather separate areas of experimental condensed matter physics: magnetic materials and granular
materials.

Novel magnetic materials are extremely important technologically and also provide excellent model systems in which to explore new physics. Current research topics in the group include: geometrically frustrated magnets, in which the spins enter cooperative spin liquid and spin ice phases at low temperatures; ferromagnetic semiconductors, in which the introduction of magnetic ions into a semiconductor opens up the possibility of novel electronic devices; and frustrated lattices of interacting ferromagnetic nanostructures, in which the local accommodation of frustration can be directly observed through magnetic force microscopy. We have also had an extensive research program in magnetoelectronic oxides in which the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties are very closely coupled, leading to spectacular effects such as transitions from metallic to insulating states induced by the presence of a magnetic field.

Granular materials include any substance composed of collections of separated solid grains (e.g. sand). Such materials display a variety of complex dynamic and static properties which distinguish them from materials in bulk solid or liquid phases. Current research projects include studies of local jamming induced by a solid object being pushed through the grains and studies of the flux which emerges from a shaken granular material.