Materials Growth & Measurement Laboratory (MGML)

The condensed matter physics and materials research is the major research focus of the MGML. More specifically it is quantum phase transitions, topological insulators and superconductors, magnetism and unconventional superconductivity, ferroics, multiferroics, magnetocalorics, magnetic shape-memory materials. MGML is holding an official license for onsite manipulation of U and Th metals and compounds for purposes of condensed matter and materials research. This makes MGML one of the few laboratories having a possibility of growth and measurements of novel materials containing these elements. The main strategic objective of MGML is the excellence of the infrastructure on the international scale.

MGML provides the broad scientific community unique possibilities for comprehensive experimental investigation of Condensed Matter Physic and Materials R&D. The MGML offers access to: i) broad range of top-class instrument suite for metals purification, novel materials synthesis and high-quality single-crystal growth finalized by structure and composition characterization, ii) large portfolio of physical characterization techniques focusing on measurements of material properties (thermodynamic, cohesive, magnetic, electrical and thermal transport, spectroscopic, etc.) as a function of a wide range of external conditions (temperature, magnetic field – up to 19.5 T, electric field, hydrostatic pressure, uniaxial stress). The services to users are supported by a high-expertise advice and assistance of the scientific and technical MGML staff.

Offer

• Investigations of crystal structure, magnetic, dielectric, magnetoelectric, electrical- and thermal-transport, thermal and bonding properties of materials in wide ranges of temperature, magnetic and electrical field, and external pressure.
• Controlled preparation and detailed characterization of samples.
• Single-crystal growth methods.
• Individual experimental methods.

Know-How & Technologies

Material Properties Measurement:

• Measurements of magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, Hall resistivity, thermal conductivity, Seebeck effect, thermal expansion, magnetostriction, electrical capacity and permittivity within wide ranges of temperature (30 mK – 1000 K), magnetic field (0 – 20 T), voltage (- 50V – 50 V), external pressure (up to 25 GPa).
• Measurements of X-ray powder and single-crystal diffraction at temperatures from 3 to 320 K.

Material Growth and Characterization:

• Purifying elemental metals (Rare earth metals and uranium) and refining single crystals of intermetallic compounds.
• Synthesis of polycrystalline samples, synthesis of micrograin materials and high temperature crystalline phases metastable at room temperature.
• Growth of high quality single crystals using various techniques (Czochralski, Bridgman, floating zone, flux).
• Composition analysis of samples, crystal structure analysis.

Team leader

prof. Mgr. Pavel Javorský, Dr. komunikaci

Key research equipment

Material Properties Measurement:

• PPMS 14Tand PPMS 9T – Physical Property Measurement Systems,
• MPMS XL 7T – Magnetic Property Measurement System,
• 20 T and 9 T cryomagnets equipped with 3He/4He dilution refrigerator

Material Growth and Characterization:

• Two Solid State Electrotransport (SSE) instruments
• Arc furnace – synthesis of polycrystalline samples.
• Splat cooling system – synthesis of micrograin materials
• Tri-arc furnace, Laser furnace, Optical 4-mirror furnace, Multipurpose high frequency induction furnace, Special resistance heating furnace – growth of high quality single crystals
• SETSYS Evolution TGADTA/DSC, SEM Mira 3 – Scanning Electron Microscope equipped by a Bruker EDX detector,
• Suite of single-crystal and powder x-ray diffractometers dedicated to structure solution and refinement in a broad temperature range from 5 K to 500 K.
• X-ray diffractometer equipped with high brilliance x-ray source, working in high resolution mode for detailed single-crystal or epitaxial layers studies.
• Apparatus for small angle x-ray scattering in coplanar and non-coplanar geometries allowing the study of morphology, particle sizes and distributions in nanocrystalline materials and/or thin films and low dimensional structures.

Academic and Research Partners

Academic partners:

• Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
• Institut Laue Langevin, Grenoble, France
• European Spallation Source ERIC, Lund, Sweden
• European High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Dresden, Germany
• Universität zu Köln, Germany
• Institut NÉEL CNRS, Grenoble, France
• Technische Universität Wien, Austria
• Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• P. J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia
• Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
• Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan• University of Zilina, Slovakia

Industrial partners:

• Vakuum Praha s.r.o., Czech Republic
• Dicont a. s., Czech Republic
• Foton s.r.o., Czech Republic
• Clasic s.r.o., Czech Republic
• Crytur, spol. s r.o., Czech Republic

Publications

• Electric Quadrupolar Contributions in the Magnetic Phases of UNi4B T. Yanagisawa, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 157201 (2021)
• Efficient Electrical Spin Splitter Based on Nonrelativistic Collinear Antiferromagnetism Rafael González-Hernández et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 127701 (2021)
• Dielectric ordering of water molecules arranged in a dipolar lattice M. A. Belyanchikov et. al., Nature Communications 11, 3927 (2020)

Contact

Charles University
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Ke Karlovu 5, 121 16 Prague 2
E: javor@mag.mff.cuni.cz
+420 951 551 353

We have an interest in motivated post graduate students interested in cooperation.

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