Magnetoelectric coupling in manganites Amlan Biswas, University of Florida, DMR 0804452

1. Magnetoelectric coupling in manganitesAmlan Biswas, University of Florida, DMR 0804452 The ability to control the magnetism of a material using an electric field (aptly named 'magnetoelectric (ME) coupling') holds promise for future device applications and is an exciting challenge in materials physics. We are investigating a family of materials called manganites (chemical formula: La0.27Pr0.40Ca0.33MnO3) which display ME coupling. Thin films of these materials are ferromagnetic since they show spontaneous magnetization at zero magnetic field (figure 2). Figure 3 shows that the resistance of such a thin film can be changed using an electric field which suggests a unique ME coupling in manganites. Fig. 1. Atomic Force Microscope image of a manganite thin film. Fig. 3. Voltage dependent resistance of manganites. Fig. 2. Spontaneous magnetization in manganites.

2. Magnetoelectric coupling in manganitesAmlan Biswas, University of Florida, DMR 0804452 We have encouraged the participation of female physicists in our research group and successfully recruited female undergraduate students and supervised the research of female summer REU students (Fig. 4). Our group also hosted Fulbright exchange student Julia Neff from the University of Kiel, Germany. She worked on the construction of a scanning probe microscope and attended the 2009 APS march meeting. We have also organized lab tours for pre-medical and engineering students in introductory physics classes. Fig. 4. Research experience for Undergraduates (REU) student Kristen Voigt growing a manganite thin film in the Biswas laboratory during summer 2009. Kristen is an undergraduate physics major at the Colorado State University. After completing her physics major, she plans to attend graduate school in condensed matter physics.