Research gets to the heart of the scatter (9/28/2008)
A University of Queensland physicist is hoping to unlock the secrets of how electrons behave in organic superconductors in a new study.
Dr Ben Powell, from UQ's School of Physical Sciences, was awarded a $75,000 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award for his project, and he said organic superconductors were more appealing than their ceramic and metallic counterparts as they had greater potential for the fine-tuning of electrical properties.
Superconductors conduct electricity without resistance and are used in magnetic resonance imaging, high-speed magnetic levitation trains and particle accelerators.
Dr Powell, in explaining his work, said in the materials currently found in electronic devices the interactions between electrons was relatively small, but recent experiments suggested in organic superconductors electrons interacted much more strongly.
Dr Powell will combine knowledge from physics and chemistry in an attempt to test his theories using a technique called neutron scattering.
"Neutron scattering is a powerful experiment used to understand condensed matter," Dr Powell said.
"We hope to be able to test our theories using organic superconducting materials created in the Centre for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) Laboratory, which will have a significant impact on our understanding of the way electrons behave when the interactions between them dominate their behaviour," said Dr Powell.
This project is significant for its interdisciplinary approach, given the recent announcement of the new Faculty of Science, creating links between the disciplines of physics and chemistry.
The UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards have been run for 10 years and are an initiative of UQ to recognise outstanding performance and leadership potential in early career researchers.
Dr Powell obtained his PhD from the University of Bristol in 2002 and is currently an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellow based in the COPE and the School of Physical Sciences at UQ.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by The University of Queensland
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