Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of Cryogen-Free Magnetometer for Investigating Novel Magnetic/Superconducting Systems

This award to the University of California, Riverside supports the acquisition of a cryogen-free magnetometer to support the research of a large number of investigators in the area of low-dimensional magnetic and superconducting materials and devices. To the growing campus, the availability of this shared instrument and the research enabled by it plays a positive role in the recruitment of new faculty members in several departments in the areas of quantum materials, solid state chemistry, magnetic materials and spintronics. It also significantly contributes to the education and training of generations of graduate students, undergraduate students and postdocs, many of whom are from diverse and social-economically disadvantaged background, especially for future employment opportunities in the high technology companies specializing non-volatile random access memories, hard disk drives, magnetic sensors and actuators, and biomedical devices. The MPMS3 SQUID magnetometer is a high-sensitivity, high-throughput, and cryogen-free magnetometer that is uniquely suited for serving a large number of users. It impacts a broad range of ongoing research projects at the University of California, Riverside, including the investigation of new properties in magnetic and superconducting thin films and heterostructures, new phenomena arising from proximity coupling at interfaces, and new applications of magnetic nanoparticles. More specifically, with the unprecedented sensitivity and acquisition speed, this shared instrument enables the investigations of magnetic compensation phenomenon in ferrimagnetic thin films, spin-flop transition in antiferromagnetic thin films, two-dimensional layered magnetic materials, induced ferromagnetism in topological insulator/magnetic insulator heterostructures, layered superconducting thin films and heterostructures, magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic photonic nanostructures, and photo-induced magnetism in organic systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.