Reflections from workshops hosted by the Magnetic Materials Working Group

The Functional Magnetic Materials working group has hosted two workshops this spring as a part of the New Materials theme.

Elizabeth Blackburn is Professor in Physics at the Division of Synchrotron Radiation Research at Lund University and leader of the New Materials theme.

– It is clear that there is growing and sustained interest in the area of magnetic materials. Discussions and presentations during the two workshops highlight some of the most pressing challenges within the field, such as how to be able to confidently link neutron scattering experimental data to well-understood simulations of the magnetization, says theme leader Elizabeth Blackburn, Professor in Physics at the Division of Synchrotron Radiation Research at Lund University.

– The issue of engaging the broader community, and find ways they can better link together simulations and measured data to progress their science is another important take home message for our theme.

The first workshop on 25th and 26th of March, covered the current state-of-the-art in terms of measuring the scattering function, S(q), from magnetic materials, with a particular focus on large-scale structures. It gathered 50 participants.

– We started with a broad overview from Andreas Michels from University of Luxembourg outlining the general problem. There were then excellent talks by Dustin Gilbert, from University of Tennessee in Knoxville, on reflectivity and pushing it to new experimental paradigms, and by Dirk Honecker from the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and Sebastian Muehlbauer from Maier-Leibnitz-Zentrum on the challenges in small angle neutron scattering.

– This was followed up by an introduction on what can be done computationally to model magnetic structures, both by micromagnetic simulations, and when starting from an atomistic point of view. These approaches were presented by Dmitry Berkov and Sergei Erokhin from General Numerics, and Joe Paddison from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Engage the broader community is one take home message from second workshop

The second workshop on 8th and 9th April focused on how to actually use some of the computational packages and connect them to actual neutron scattering data. 30 people took part in the discussions.

– We had a wonderful demonstration on how to use computational packages by Jonathan Leliaert from University of Ghent, Dmitry Berkov from General Numerics and Artur Glavic from the Paul Scherrer Institut. It is really important to show practically how one can connect computational packages to actual data.

– It was also great to see that a large group remained for a detailed discussion of how we can make it easier for the broader community to link together simulations and measured data. This question is something we as a Theme want to pursue further. We have now formed a working group solely dedicated to look into this issue, concludes Elizabeth Blackburn.