MSE 298 Seminar: Scattering Studies of Lattice and Spin Dynamics in Materials

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Abstract: Many scientific and technical challenges require materials with structural, transportation, electronic and magnetic properties tailored to specific applications. Knowledge on fundamental excitations in materials is critical to understand many of these physical properties. Inelastic neutron scattering, neutron diffraction and inelastic X-ray scattering are valuable tools to measure the lattice and spin dynamics in materials with exotic vibrational properties, including spintronic materials, thermoelectrics, negative thermal expansion material, fast ion conductor and low-dimension materials. Anharmonic phonon dynamics arises from various mechanisms in these materials, such as phonon-phonon, electron-phonon, and magnon-phonon interactions. Understanding these fundamental interactions not only helps us better understand the existing materials but also provides profound insights on engineering novel functional materials with transformative impacts and uncovering new physics.

Bio: Chen Li joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Program at UC Riverside in 2016. Prior to that, he worked as a research scientist at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. He was also a joint faculty member at Spallation Neutron Source, the most intense pulsed-neutron source in the world, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Li obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from Peking University and his doctorate in materials science from the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science, California Institute of Technology. After graduation, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar for Scattering and Thermophysics Group, Materials Science and Technology Division, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Li received the NSF Career Award in 2017.