Research Interests

Primary Research Areas

Our research interests span the areas of Quantum Materials, Spintronics and Low Temperature Instrumentation. We are especially interested in the following topics: 

1. Spin Currents in Quantum Materials

The generation and manipulation of a purely magnon driven spin current lies at the heart of contemporary spintronics - and is of interest from the perspective of both basic physics, as well as potential applications.  The fact that these spin currents scatter very differently from their charge analogues have meant that they can potentially form the bedrock of the next generation of spintronic devices. Moreover, these currents can be generated in magnetic insulators as well – making antiferromagnetic magnonic devices a distinct possibility. We have been interested in evaluating how strongly correlated quantum materials fare as potential hosts of such magnonic spin currents. We generate spin currents using thermal gradients, as well as electromagnetic and acoustic waves, with these spin currents then being electrically read out using the inverse spin Hall effect. In magnetic metals, these spin currents are also strongly coupled with charge currents, and we utilise the combination of the two to glean information about microscopic phenomena, especially in the vicinity of phase transitions. 

2. Strongly correlated oxides with large spin-orbit interactions

We have been investigating the magnetism of a number of hitherto un-investigated strongly correlated oxide materials with the aim of evaluating their structure property relationships. A key motive here is to find new phenomena and functionalities driven by large spin- orbit coupling. 

We concentrate on ruthenates and iridates, which by virtue of their partially filled 4d and 5d shells offer a fertile playground for uncovering spin orbital driven phenomena. Material classes are typically perovskite variants like the double and triple perovskites, which also offer the possibility of tailoring the dimensionality of the lattice as well as the magnetic interactions. 

3. Low temperature Instrumentation:

An important research activity in our group pertains to the design and development of low temperature measurement apparatus for investigating quantum materials. Our goal here is to establish sensitive measurements facilities, the likes of which are not typically available in commercially available, off-the shelf equipment. Some of the low- temperature measurement facilities that have been established in the past few years include:

a) Apparatus to measure the Spin Seebeck Effect and the anomalous Nernst Effect

b) Apparatus to measure dielectric hyper-susceptibilities of solids

c) 3-omega set-up for measurement of thermal conductivity

d) A Resonant Ultrasound Spectrometer to measure elastic constants of solids

e) A Ferromagnetic Resonance Measurement apparatus

f) A low temperature probe of the Acousto-Electric Effect