Engineering topics

Barrows, Frank

Publications and source records attributed to Barrows, Frank.

3 records

DOE OSTI2022

Geometric control of emergent antiferromagnetic order in coupled artificial spin ices

Artificial spin ices (ASIs) composed of coupled nanomagnets offer the possibility to create designer geometrical frustration and manipulate inter-nanomagnet interactions. In particular, by using a dimer motif consisting of two strongly coupled single-domain nano magnets as a building block, we can control and realize intriguing antiferromagnetic physical states in which the magnetic charge is not conserved. Here we create a dimer kagome ASI system within which the antiferromagnetic order is controlled by tuning lattice geometry. Different disordered antiferromagnetic phases and the inter-nanomagnet interactions are visualized directly in demagnetized lattices with different lattice parameters. Monte Carlo simulations establish that the collective ground state consists of disordered antiferromagnetic dimers across the lattice when the intra-dimer interaction is dominant. However, for lattices governed by intra-triad-unit interactions, the ground state exhibits a longrange spin-ordered state in which the vertex magnetic charge is uniform across all triads.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Mesoscale Confinement Effects and Emergent Quantum Interference in Titania Antidot Thin Films

The effect of confinement on electron and ion transport in oxide films is of interest both fundamentally and technologically for the design of next-generation electronic devices. In metal oxides with mobile ions and vacancies, it is the interplay of the different modes of charge transport and the corresponding current–voltage signatures that is of interest. We developed a patterned structure in titania films, with feature sizes of 11–20 nm, that allow us to explore confined transport. In this study, we describe how confinement changes the competing charge transport mechanisms, the patterned antidot array leads to displacement fields and confines the charge density that results in modified and emergent electron transport with an increase in conductivity. This emergent behavior can be described by considering electron interference effects. Characterization of the charge transport with electron holography and impedance spectroscopy, and through comparison with modeling, show that nanoscale confinement is a way to control quantum interference.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2020

Quantifying leakage fields at ionic grain boundaries using off-axis electron holography

The electrical properties of interfaces in semiconductors and ionic conductors are immensely important in a wide range of applications. Electron holography is ideally suited for the direct measurement of the electrostatic potential of such interfaces. A key challenge with this approach is the contribution of the leakage field from the sample to the observed electron phase shift. This leakage field cannot be a priori independently determined and can cause an overestimation of the phase shift. In this work, we use finite element simulations to compute the three-dimensional electrostatic potential in the vicinity of an interface associated with a given interfacial charge density distribution. We then evaluate the predicted phase shift and demonstrate that the leakage field strongly affects the recovery of the projected interface potential. From the difference between the true potential and uncorrected, recovered potential, we propose a method to correct for this effect. We then demonstrate the application of this methodology to the analysis of experimental off-axis electron holography data acquired from the grain boundaries in lightly doped ceria.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗