GDM005 - Seeing antiferromagnetism with light: nanoscale optical probes of magnetic materials
How can we see and control magnetic order in materials that have no net magnetisation? This project will develop new optical approaches to investigate antiferromagnetic materials at the nanoscale, revealing how magnetic order couples to their structural, vibrational and optical properties.
Antiferromagnets are attracting growing interest for future information technologies. Unlike conventional ferromagnets, their magnetic moments compensate, producing little or no net magnetisation. This makes antiferromagnetic states robust against external magnetic perturbations and removes the stray fields that can limit how closely magnetic elements can be packed. Their intrinsically fast spin dynamics also offer exciting opportunities for developing high-speed, dense and energy-efficient technologies for storing, processing and transmitting information. A major challenge, however, is learning how to observe, manipulate and ultimately exploit their internal magnetic domain structure.
This project will explore how light can provide a route to accessing these otherwise hidden magnetic states. You will investigate how nanoscale optical spectroscopy can reveal the coupled magnetic, structural and dielectric properties of antiferromagnetic materials. Building on recent work using plasmonic nanocavities to probe ultrathin antiferromagnetic oxides, the project will examine how strongly confined optical fields can provide local information about spin–lattice coupling, phonons and the dielectric response. These measurements will be combined with second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy and spectroscopy, providing a complementary probe of magnetic symmetry and enabling optical identification of antiferromagnetic domains.
The project will initially use model antiferromagnetic oxides such as NiO, before extending these concepts to a broader family of antiferromagnetic materials and thin-film systems. By combining complementary optical measurements, you will investigate how material composition, structure, strain and external stimuli influence magnetic domains and their coupling to the lattice.
Ultimately, the project aims to establish new ways of seeing and understanding antiferromagnetic domains using light, and to uncover the material properties that determine how these domains form, respond and can be controlled. Developing this understanding is an important step towards using antiferromagnetic states as functional elements in future technologies, where information could be encoded in magnetic configurations that are compact, robust and potentially operated at high speed and low energy.
The project sits at the intersection of condensed-matter physics, nanophotonics, nonlinear optics and materials science, spanning fundamental questions about coupled spin, lattice and optical phenomena through to potential applications in antiferromagnetic spintronics, low-power information processing, ultrafast technologies and next-generation memory.
You’ll gain interdisciplinary training in advanced optical spectroscopy, plasmonic nanostructures, Raman spectroscopy, SHG microscopy and quantitative optical analysis, with opportunities to work closely with collaborators in materials growth, structural characterisation and theoretical modelling.
We welcome applicants from physics, materials science, chemistry, engineering or related disciplines. You don’t need to have experience in all of these techniques – curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm for interdisciplinary experimental research are most important.
