Condensed matter physics
Michalis Charilaou
Magnetic materials and nanostructures
Michalis Charilaou is a condensed-matter and materials physicist with highly interdisciplinary activity. His focus is on magnetism and magnetic materials, and he combines computational modeling and experiments to study the magnetization dynamics in nanoparticles and nanostructures. Magnetic nano-objects are vital components in many technologies, ranging from biomedicine to energy conversion and Earth and space exploration, and obtaining a deeper understanding of the physics of magnetic materials is thus crucial. Michalis combines atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, high-resolution micromagnetic simulations, magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance, and electron microscopy techniques. With this set of tools, he studies a wide range of materials, ranging from magnetic minerals and biogenic nanoparticles to nanostructured high-performance permanent magnets.
William A. Hollerman
Triboluminscence. Radiation effects in luminescent materials
Gabriela Petculescu
Elasto-magnetic behavior of materials. Phase transitions in magnetostrictive alloys
Gabriela Petculescu is an experimental physicist whose primary area of expertise is in elastic and magnetic properties of solids. Through the use of ultrasonic techniques such as Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS) and pulse-echo, she extracts information about lattice dynamics and physical properties such as elastic moduli and magnetoelastic constants of solids (elements, alloys, and compounds). In order to investigate elastic properties of samples with varied geometries, Gabriela employs bulk, surface, and Lamb waves, in both the linear and nonlinear acoustic regimes. A particular class of materials of current interest are Fe-Ga alloys (known as Galfenol). Their strong magnetostrictive coupling make them promising candidates as transducer materials, whether as precision drivers or energy-harvesting devices. Gabriela Petculescu is currently measuring the elastic properties of Fe-Ga alloys as a function of composition, over a range of temperatures and magnetic fields.