Sarah Edwards

Magnetism and ordered phases in quantum materials have many applications, from energy-efficient data storage to superconductors that can transport electricity perfectly with no losses. In my work as a PhD student under Dr. Jiun-Haw Chu, I synthesize and study single crystals of quantum materials in order to figure how what makes their electronic and magnetic properties tick. In particular, my research focuses on strain as an axis of control- by manually altering the symmetry of a crystal, we can induce changes in the magnetic ordering, manipulate the population of spin domains, and investigate underlying behavior that couples to strain, such as nematicity, a phase thought to have a deep relationship with many types of magnetism and superconductivity.