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ESI Special Topics, September 2003
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/fmf/2003/september03-ThomMason.html

From •>>September 2003

Thom Mason answers a few questions about this month's fast moving front in the field of Physics.

Field: Physics
Article: "Spins in the vortices of a high-temperature superconductor"
Author: Lake, B;Aeppli, G;Clausen, KN;McMorrow, DF;Lefmann, K;Hussey, NE;Mangkorntong, N;Nohara, M;Takagi, H;Mason, TE;Schroder, A
Journal: SCIENCE, 291: (5509) 1759-1762, MAR 2 2001
Addresses:
NEC Res, 4 Independence Way, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA.
NEC Res, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA.
Oak Ridge Natl Lab, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 USA.
Riso Natl Lab, Dept Condensed Matter Phys & Chem, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
Univ Tokyo, Grad Sch Frontier Sci, Dept Adv Mat Sci, Bunkyo Ku, Tokyo 1138656, Japan.
Univ Loughborough, Dept Phys, Loughborough LE11 3TU, Leics, England.
Univ Karlsruhe, Inst Phys, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany.
 
Thom Mason's fast moving front paper (above) is also featured in the Research Front Map in the field of Physics along with one other paper authored by Mason.

 


ST:  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

Most of the interest comes from two areas: many theories of the mixed state of d-wave superconductors imply correlated spins developing in the vortices, consistent with our measurements and there have been a number of recent measurements using local probes, such as NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and scanning probe microscopes that also observe spins in the vortex cores.

ST:  Does it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to others?

Ours are the first measurements of the spatial and temporal correlations of the spins in vortices and therefore provide the most detailed microscopic information about their interactions.

ST:  How did you become involved in this research?

A number of us have been collaborating in studies of the spin dynamics of high temperature superconductors using inelastic neutron scattering for many years; this is the logical extension of those studies to higher magnetic fields—yielding results that were quite surprising!

ST:  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

Although high-temperature superconductors were discovered over 15 years ago, a detailed understanding of the origins of the superconductivity remains elusive. Many of the important characteristics of the superconducting state have been identified, such as its symmetry, and most of the candidate theories ascribe an important role to the spin degrees of freedom, both in the normal and superconducting state. These inelastic neutron scattering measurements allow us to characterize the microscopic parameters of the spin interactions and, in this case, also shed light onto the vortex state which is the regime of most technological relevance.

Thom Mason's fast moving front paper (above) is also featured in the Research Front Map in the field of Physics along with one other paper authored by Mason.End

Thomas E. Mason
Spallation Neutron Source
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN, USA

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ESI Special Topics, September 2003
Citing URL: http://www.esi-topics.com/fmf/2003/september03-ThomMason.html
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