Research Interests

Primary Research Areas

Synthesis of new Multiferroics / Multifunctional Oxides

Multiferroics are materials which exhibit more than one ferroic properties, for instance that of long range magnetic order and ferroelectricity. Currently in vogue for their potential applications in the next generation of memory devices, as well as the interesting electron correlation effects which result in concomitant charge and spin orders.

Magnetism and transport in transition metal oxides

Transition metal oxides provide an interesting playground for the synthesis of materials where strong electronic correlations manifests themselves in the form of striking physical properties. Of particular interest are systems which exhibit phenomena like colossal magnetoresistance, charge and orbital order, and multiferroicity.

Magnetotransport in Unconventional Superconductors

Superconductivity and magnetism were thought to be phenomena which are intrinsically inimical to each other. However, the discovery of superconductivity in the inherently magnetic CeCu₂Si₂ signalled the advent of research into unconventional superconductors where magnetic fluctuations are thought to be crucial in the stabilisation of the superconducting ground state. Measurements of the Hall effect and magnetoresistance play a crucial role in elucidating the physics of these materials.

Low Temperature Instrumentation

A rigorous characterisation of these strongly correlated electron systems warrants the use of extensive low temperature measurements, some of which are not readily available in commercially available systems. A continuos focus of our work is the development of measurement set ups to facilitate these investigations.

Non-linear magnetic susceptibility

Measurements of the non-linear magnetic susceptibility provides a unique handle in the investigations of magnetic phase transitions. The fact that the higher order susceptibilities are at-least a few orders of magnitude smaller than the linear susceptibility has meant that this powerful technique remains under utilised in the investigation of magnetic systems.

Spin Caloritronics

Spin Caloritronics pertains to the interaction of spins with heat currents and we are motivated to investigate the physics concerning coupling of spin, charge and heat currents in magnetic systems. Possible applications include SSE devices which work as heat sensors, waste heat recyclers etc. Of particular interest would be the measurement of Spin Seebeck Effect (SSE) across magnetic and electronic phase transitions of some strongly correlated materials.