Final Year Projects 2022-2023 – You will be working on an individual project within a group focusing on magnetothermal effects. Below descriptions are available for both part C and part D.

Thermal conductivity in thin films.

Measuring the thermal conductivity of thin films requires careful consideration of heat transfer and loss through the film and the substrate itself. The 3 omega technique is an ac technique that is well suited to measuring the thermal conductivity of thin films due to changes in heat transfer with frequency and design of the heater used. In this technique, a metallic heater strip is deposited onto the sample to be measured, where an alternating current at frequency, f, is applied, thereby heating the sample at a frequency of 2*f. The resulting temperature change in the heater strip results in an observable voltage at 3*f. You will be exploring development of this for thermal conductivity measurements using a lock-in amplifier.

Measurement of spin Seebeck devices 

The spin Seebeck effect is a recently discovered phenomenon whereby a spin polarised current is generated in a magnetic material subjected to a temperature gradient. Detection of the spin polarisation current is achieved by placing a metal such as Pt in contact with the magnetic material so that the spin current is converted to a charge current by the inverse spin Hall effect. This project will be exploring measurement of spin Seebeck devices, where the aim is to convert waste heat into useful electrical power.

Spin Seebeck measurements with alternative alloys

The spin Seebeck effect is a recently discovered phenomenon whereby a spin polarised current is generated in a magnetic material subjected to a temperature gradient. Detection of the spin polarisation current is achieved by placing a metal such as Pt in contact with the magnetic material so that the spin current is converted to a charge current by the inverse spin Hall effect. This project will be exploring potential alternative materials to Pt.