The Musfeldt Lab published their work “Nonreciprocal directional dichroism of a chiral magnet in the visible range” in npj Quantum Materials. Micheal Yokosuk, recent doctoral graduate from the Musfeldt Lab and DMREF collaboration, is the primary author of this work.
The Musfeldt Lab provides a very unique opportunity for students with the DMREF team (Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future). DMREF collaboration just won a Creativity Extension on our 4 year, $1.6 M grant. “This is the highest honor in the Division of Materials Research,” Professor Janice Musfeldt said. “The Creativity Extension is worth $450 K over the next year.”
“The goal of the Rutgers – Tennessee DMREF team is to explore the new functionalities that arise in materials in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling,” Yokosuk said. “I participated in this collaboration from the beginning, lead the collaboration between crystal growers, theorists, and spectroscopists, and was responsible for the discovery of nonreciprocal directional dichroism in Ni3TeO6 – a system in which both ultra-low symmetry and spin-orbit coupling are essential.”
This research reveals how nonreciprocal effects extend into the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and prove, by symmetry arguments, measurements, simulations, and first principles theory, the many different orientations for these effects in chiral magnets.
“My time with the DMREF team was one of the most rewarding experiences in my graduate career. In addition to encouraging me to take the lead on projects that I found interesting, they pushed me to learn new science to back up my ideas” Yokosuk said. “It prepared me incredibly well for my new job at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.”