Intern: Aaron Pfannestiel
Mentor: Antonio Santos
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Tony Cheetham
Supporting Grant Agency: Materials Research Lab
Academic Major: Geology
Project Title: "The Synthesis and Characterization of Bismuth Manganese Perovskites"
Abstract: Bismuth Manganese Perovskites have extraordinary
mechanical, magnetic and electrical properties. At low temperatures this
perovskite is both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric. This unusual behaviorcould
lead to enhanced device performance, to date these properties are not fully
understood and application has not been fully examined.
Most syntheses of this type of perovskite normally occur under great
pressure and high temperatures. We however focused on alternative methods
of synthesis. Our synthesis required putting the precursors into solution
and then attempting to crystallize a perovskite out of that solution. A
process of many cycles of heat treatment at different temperatures was
utilized in hopes that we would find a certain temperature that the perovskite
favored. We also enlisted the use of thin films in hopes that we would
be able to grow a Perovskite on a substrate. This process involved deposition
of a minute amount of our solution on either a Lanthanum Aluminum or Strontium
Titanium substrate.
X-ray diffraction allowed us to characterize the powders and thin films
we were producing in the lab. We were also able to see the evolution that
took place during the heat treatment process with X-ray diffraction.
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