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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L41233/01
Title: INVESTIGATION FLUX-VORTEX STRUCTURES SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS USING MUON-SPIN ROTATION
Principal Investigator: Lee, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Organisation: University of St Andrews
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 21 March 1997 Ends: 20 March 2001 Value (£): 3,674
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Characterisation
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The proposed project will continue the existing, highly successful programme to use the combined techniques of muon-spin rotation (mSR), small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and magnetometry to investigate the behaviour of flux vortices in high-Tc and other exotic superconductors. The ability to make detailed microscopic measurements and high-precision bulk measurements on the same samples has led to the understanding of many aspects of vortex behaviour in these systems. For instance, the relation between the flux-lattice melting line, decoupling line and the irreversibility line, and between the so called 'second peak' magnetisation effect and the expected dimensional crossover, are both areas where we continue to make important contributions to the field. Future investigations will include the influence of columnar defects on the vortex arrangement in several distinct systems; the coupling of vortices in extremely anisotropic systems such as the organic superconductors based on BEDT-TTF; melting phenomena in detwinned YBa2 Cu3 O7 -d single crystals; vortex behaviour in artificially grown multilayers. This last study will be particularly suited to the newly-developed very-slow muon technique, which will allow the momentum of the muons, and hence their penetration into condensed matter, to be very carefully controlled. The application of a high-sensitivity magnetometer, currently being developed under another EPSRC award, will also be extremely useful for this and other aspects of the current programme.
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Organisation Website: http://www.st-and.ac.uk