Research - Past and Present
- Quadrupolar correlations and spin freezing in S = 1 triangular lattice antiferromagnets, E.M. Stoudenmire, Simon Trebst and Leon Balents [arxiv version]
- Magnetic Phase Evolution in the Spinel Compounds Zn(1-x)CoxCr2O4, Brent C. Melot, Jennifer E. Drewes, Ram Seshadri, E.M. Stoudenmire and Arthur P. Ramirez [arxiv version]
- Tuning Magnetic Frustration on the Diamond Lattice of the A-site Magnetic Spinels CoAl(2-x)GaxO4: Lattice Expansion Versus Site Disorder, Brent C. Melot, Katharine Page, Ram Seshadri, E.M. Stoudenmire, Leon Balents, Doron L. Bergman and Thomas Proffen [arxiv version]
- Ordered Phases of the Anisotropic Kagome-Lattice Antiferromagnet in a Field, E.M. Stoudenmire and Leon Balents, Phys. Rev. B 77, 174414 (2008) [arxiv version]
- Magnetoresistive Effects in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Multilayers, E.M. Stoudenmire and C.A.R. Sa de Melo, J. Appl. Phys. 97, 10J108 (2005)
Photos
- August 2007 School & Workshop on Highly Frustrated Magnets in Trieste, Italy. (Link)
- On my trip back from Italy, I visited a friend in Paris! (Link)
Quick Bio
I am a grad student studying physics at UC Santa Barbara, where I started Fall '05, and I work with Leon Balents (before coming to UCSB, I studied both math and physics at Georgia Tech, working with Carlos Sa de Melo for a few years before graduation.) My main area of interest is in "hard" i.e. quantum condensed matter theory, which is the study of systems with a large number of constituents, each of which can be understood quantum mechanically. Some people think that condensed matter isn't as cool as high energy physics (fundamental particles, string theory and all that), but it is a field that is full of subtlety and exotic quantum effects. It is also a subject that lends itself to the application of interesting mathematical tools, like algebraic geometry (my favorite) and group theory (usually in the context of symmetry).
In particular, my research at UCSB has so far been in the area of 'frustrated magnetism'. Despite the odd sounding name, a frustrated magnet is more or less just a magnet in which the atoms are arranged in a solid lattice that contains triangles. The magnetic moments on the atoms would like to line up in the opposite direction from their neighbors, but this sort of arrangement is impossible on a triangle hence the sense of frustration! So, the atoms have to compromise, and this causes their quantum nature to become much more apparent. As researchers, our challenge is to figure out what compromises the atoms settle upon in various materials; if you look at my first paper on the subject (Ordered Phases of the Anisotropic KAF) we found that the magnetism in a certain class of quasi-2D materials can be understood using a technique developed for one-dimensional systems (bosonization). Then, in `Quadrupolar correlations and spin freezing...' we found some very subtle types of spin ordering using symmetry arguments and a clever new computer simulation method. But, the possibilities for frustrated magnets are so vast that what works for one problem may be completely useless for the next!