Dr. Stephen E. Nagler
Corporate Fellow &
Chief Scientist, Neutron Scattering Science Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Superconductivity and Magnetism in the Iron Age

Abstract:

Since early 2008 there has been great excitement and much research effort directed towards understanding a new class of superconducting materials, the co-called “iron based superconductors”. These are characterized by the presence of a square lattice of iron atoms, each in a tetrahedrally co-ordinated local environment, and are closely related to magnetically ordered parent compounds. In this talk I will briefly review some recent history of research on these materials, followed by a discussion of neutron scattering measurements of the magnetic structure and excitations. The last part of the talk will focus on inelastic neutron scattering experiments on single crystals, including the “resonant” magnetic excitation associated with the superconducting transition.