Leader: Sergey Kichanov

Work phone number: +7 (496) 216-35-79

Work E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Scientific problem:

The use of high pressure results in changes in the unit cell parameters of the compounds that in turn, results in changes in the physical properties of the materials. The low-dimensional magnetic systems of spin chains show a rich diversity of complex physical phenomena, such as the quantum critical point, Bose-Einstein condensation, Haldane gap excitations, exotic magnetic ground states, development of magnetization plateaus in external magnetic fields, multiferroicity that are at the current focus of the extensive research. Due to the various crystalline electric field splittings, the Co3+(I) and Co3+(II) ions with the octahedral oxygen coordination in a triangular base prism have the low-spin state LS (S = 0) and the high-spin state HS (S = 2), respectively. Further important insight in exploration of particular factors responsible for the complex physical phenomenon observed in Ca3Co2O6 and underlying structure-property relationships can be achieved in the result of high-pressure investigations that mediate competing interactions by modifying interatomic distances and angles. It is proposed to investigate the effect of pressure on the crystalline and magnetic structure of complex cobalt oxides using neutron and X-ray diffractions.

Objective: 

It is proposed to investigate the effect of pressure on the crystalline and magnetic structure of complex cobalt oxides using neutron and X-ray diffractions.

Tasks:

1. Acquisition of data on the studied materials, experimental methods and methodological techniques of data analysis.

2. Implementing experiments to study the crystal structure using X-ray diffraction at high pressure.

3. Carrying out experiments on neutron diffraction of the studied compounds at high pressure.

4. Analysis of diffraction data.

5. Writing a qualifying paper.

Research facilities: 

IBR-2 high flux pulsed reactor, DN-6 and DN-12 diffractometers