Research Outline:

The grand challenges of nanomagnetism are the creation, exploration, and understanding of collective, emergent magnetic phenomena exhibited by nanoscale materials. My interests focus on facets of these challenges related to spintronics, specifically spin transport phenomena in multilayer magnetic heterostructures. My laboratory employs two tools of nanoscience to investigate spin-dependent transport: geometric confinement, and physical proximity. New properties arise when well known materials are confined in one or more dimensions, for example, by growing them as thin films and/or via nanolithography techniques. Similarly, novel phenomena originate from the proximity of dissimilar materials in multi-component systems, such as thin film heterostructures. Materials and devices are fabricated by a combination of thin film growth and lithography, then characterized via cryogenic transport measurements in high magnetic fields.