This is a past event.

Materials Science and Engineering Seminar

Matt Sisson

PhD Candidate, Materials Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University

1:25–1:45 p.m.

Abstract

Nanoscale materials exhibit novel properties due to broken symmetries that alter an atom’s local environment. This changes the atom’s electronic structure, potentially altering its spin moment and attendant measurable physical properties like magnetic hysteresis. Iron disilicide (FeSi₂) is nonmagnetic in bulk, but density functional theory calculations predict magnetic properties at nanoscale, which has been experimentally verified. How morphology and interfacial orientation affects nanoisland magnetization and how their spatial arrangement affects magnetic coupling can be studied using atomistic spin dynamics and micromagnetic domain theory. A more thorough understanding of these phenomena could improve spin filters needed to spin-polarize electric current, enabling the next generation of spintronics. Spintronics devices like magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) could dramatically increase the computational efficiency of complex simulations, potentially accelerating many fields of research.

Bio

Matt earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Michigan in 2010. A computer hardware hobbyist, Matt enrolled at Michigan Tech in 2021 to pursue a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering under advisor Dr. Yongmei Jin, believing his physics background lends itself to researching the unique physics of nanomaterials. His current research uses computational methods to study novel nanoscale magnetic properties with technological applications.