Physics & Astronomy

Department Features

Current research and activities in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

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Transient Defects Caught in the Act

Anisotropic x-ray diffuse scattering pattern surrounding the (200) Bragg reflection of La1.8Sr2.2Mn2O7 at 125 K. This "butterfly" scattering is evidence that Jahn-Teller polarons (football-shaped lattice distortions that follow hopping electrons from site to site) play a role in this material's exotic phase transition from paramagnetic insulator to ferromagnetic metal. Branton Campbell and collaborators used this data to conduct the first quantitative three-dimensional structural analysis of a transient crystal defect. Phys. Rev. B 67, 020409(R) (2003).

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