(June 26, 2015) Researchers
at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a
new method to manipulate a wide range of materials and their behavior using
only a handful of helium ions.
The team’s technique, published in Physical Review Letters,
advances the understanding and use of complex oxide materials that boast
unusual properties such as superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistance but
are notoriously difficult to control.
For the first time, ORNL researchers have discovered a
simple way to control the elongation of a crystalline material along a single
direction without changing the length along the other directions or damaging
the crystalline structure. This is accomplished by adding a few helium ions
into a complex oxide material and provides a never before possible level of
control over magnetic and electronic properties.