My name is Thomas Hayes, and the focus of my project was the study of strong geometric frustration in magnetic materials. I was supervised by Dr. Oleg Petrenko

I assisted in the growth of several single crystals of strontium erbium oxide (SrEr₂O₄) by the floating zone method, in our Group's image furnaces.

I used x-ray Laue back scattering to characterise and align these single crystals. I also used a Quantum Design SQUID magnetometer, a Quantum Design PPMS, and an Oxford Instruments VSM to study their magnetic properties.

Neutron scattering studies performed included an inelastic scattering experiment to investigate the excitations in powdered strontium erbium oxide on the HET instrument at ISIS, a diffraction experiment on strontium dysprosium oxide on the high-flux diffractometer D1B at ILL, and a neutron diffraction experiment upon a single crystal sample of SrEr₂O₄, using the PRISMA instrument at ISIS.

I attended the Magnetic Structure Determination Workshop organised by ISIS and took part in the Neutron Training School, also at ISIS.

I graduated with an M.Phil. in Physics in October 2013.

 

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