Physics students make most of research opportunity

From Galileo to Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein, physics has been dominated by people who were set apart from their contemporaries.

For South Dakota State University physics majors Gavin Baker and Jax Wysong, it is undergraduate research that has set them apart from their contemporaries. In March, they shared their undergraduate research with those gathered at the mass meeting of the American Physical Society in Las Vegas. It is an international gathering with more than 10,000 participants.

Their research on Heusler alloys was undertaken at the direction of associate professor Parashu Kharel, who has National Science Foundation funding for the work.

The purpose of the work is to find an alloy that will require less battery power for electronic devices such as computers and phones. The students synthesized and tested different alloys in the Kharel’s physics materials and nanoscience lab in Crothers Engineering Hall. Testing didn’t produce the holy grail of spintronic metals, but it has been a great experience for the young men.

Baker has worked with Kharel for the last three years and Wysong has worked with him for the last two years.

Research leads to internship at Los Alamos

Wysong, a junior from Hills, Minnesota, said, “I’ve done some sort of research every semester I have been here. Everything revolves around it. I know I want to do some kind of research in the future. I want to find out what I like and what I don’t like. To potentially publish papers and go to research conferences and do presentations is huge.

“The research I do during the year gives me a leg up on summer internships. I’ve gotten some sort of internship every summer and I don’t think that would have been possible without the experience and background I do have during the school year.”

This summer his research will be at the Los Alamos National Research Lab in New Mexico. The Department of Energy facility is one of the world's largest and most advanced scientific institutions.

Wysong said the fact that he had the confidence to apply for such an internship and the credentials to be accepted is a result of his previous internship, which was on the SDSU campus under Jung-Han Kimn, an associate professor in mathematics. That was through Research Experience for Undergraduate, which is a National Science Foundation program that funds students to work with faculty-mentored projects around the nation, including at SDSU.

The work Wysong did for Kimn was more computational mathematics than physics, but Kimn wanted a physics student because of their critical thinking, analytical and problem solving skills.

Turns out one of Kimn’s collaborators is at Los Alamos National Laboratory and he encouraged Wysong to apply for an internship at a national lab. “I wouldn’t have even applied for something like this if I hadn’t been a part of REU,” said Wysong, who will be at Los Alamos from early June to mid-August for the 10-week internship.

His work at Los Alamos will be computational physics, which is similar to theoretical physics, and involves “more programming and making simulations rather than working in a lab. That is something similar to what I did last summer and I really liked it. I like that a lot more than experimental work.,” he said.

Wysong is set to graduate in May 2024, but plans to go on to earn a doctorate in computational physics in order to become a professor and researcher.

Already published 5 peer-reviewed articles

Baker, a junior from Underwood, Iowa, said he is looking at a career in physics education or health physics, which would involve working at a place where radiation is an issue, such as at a nuclear power plant, a hospital or in the space program.

Baker is also planning to graduate in May 2024. This summer he plans to continue his research on spintronic and permanent magnet  materials under Kharel. His 10-weeks summer research will be partially supported by funds from the National Science Foundation and by NASA EPSCoR.

He said was influenced to study physics as a result of high school teacher.

In his time at SDSU, Baker has had five articles published in peer-reviewed journals, traveled to scientific conferences, presented research virtually at conferences and on March 8 gave an eight-minute talk at the American Physical Society meeting on “Synthesis, crystal structure, and magnetic properties of CoMoFeAl and related compounds.”

He studied three alloys composed of cobalt, molybdenum, iron and aluminum.

Looking for metals with right spin

The aim is to create an alloy that possess spin-dependent properties.

Kharel said, “Electronic spin is a quantum mechanical property which can have two possible orientations—up or down. Alloys predicted to exhibit 100% spin polarization, where one spin direction behaves as a metal  and the other as an insulator, are the focus of our research. Half-metals can provide highly spin-polarized currents that can be used to create and manipulate spin-dependent phenomena in other devices for information storage, sensing and computing.”

The alloys Baker tested had a spin polarization of about 75%, which is not a half-metal but still can provide a high degree of spin-polarized currents and is interesting to investigate, Baker said.

He said this type of research has been going on since the 1980s. Industrywide, the thought is within the next 20 to 30 years a useable product will be developed, Baker said.

“Whereas today’s computers have to constantly take power from the battery to supply the ones and the zeros and lose the information when power is interrupted, the spintronic devices in which zeros and ones are represented by up or down spins can retain the data or information even without the continuous supply of power.

“They would take severely less energy, they would be so much more efficient,” he said.

Baker may not still be working in that field when the holy grail of spintronic metals is discovered, but he said that opportunities to travel, present research and make connections as a result of his undergraduate research has been invaluable.

He echoes the thoughts of lab partner Wysong, who said, “I always try to tell incoming freshmen to get involved in research if they can, especially here. There are a lot of small departments that have researchers who are looking for students to help them. People should take advantage of it. I’m glad I have.”