Shpyrko Research Group @ UCSD

Welcome to Shpyrko Group at UCSD!

Shpyrko Group outing, May 17, 2008

We are experimental condensed matter physics group in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. Our group studies nanoscale dynamics and structure of materials characterized by complex disorder.

We are particularly interested in developing novel coherent x-ray scattering techniques to probe dynamics in variety of condensed matter systems, ranging from electronic and magnetic materials to soft matter including fluids, colloids, nanoparticles, polymers and glasses as well as behavior of materials in nanoscale confinement.

News Updates:

Group Wiki added (July 2008)
Oleg receives Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award (May 2008)
UCSD Condensed Matter Physics ranked top 10 in U.S. (Apr. 2008)
Dr. Jyoti Mohanty joins our group as postdoctoral fellow (Jan. 2008)
Crystalline Phases of AuSi alloy paper published Phys. Rev. B (Dec. 2007)
High-Pressure Chromium work is published in PRL (Sep. 2007)
Speckle study of antiferromagnetic domain wall dynamics published in Nature (May, 2007)
Hall Effect & Microscopy of antiferromagnetic domains published in PRL (Mar. 2007)
Nanopore capillary filling work is published in PRL (Oct. 2006)
Surface Freezing work is published in Science (July 2006)

We are looking to hire at postdoctoral, graduate student and undergraduate levels

Examples of available Research Projects:

Nanoscale Dynamics using X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy
Coherent X-ray Microscopy
Behavior of Nanoconfined liquids
Atomic Structure of Liquid-Solid and Liquid-Vapor Interfaces
Emergent behavior, pattern formation and mesoscale phase separation in electronic and magnetic materials

Future is bright: These new research directions are especially exciting in view of recent developments in coherent fourth generation synchrotron sources, such as X-ray Free Electron Lasers and Energy Recovery Linacs.

Recent/Selected Publications:

O. G. Shpyrko et al., "Direct measurement of antiferromagnetic domain fluctuations"
Nature 447, 68 (2007)

R. Jaramillo et al., "Microscopic and Macroscopic Signatures of Antiferromagnetic Domains"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 117206 (2007)

O. G. Shpyrko et al., "Surface Crystallization in a Liquid AuSi Alloy"
Science 313, 77 (2006)

K. J. Alvine et al., "Capillary filling of anodized alumina nanopore arrays"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 175503 (2006)

O. G. Shpyrko et al., "Atomic-Scale Surface Demixing in a Eutectic Liquid BiSn Alloy"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 106103 (2005)

You are welcome to read more about our research directions and facilities we use, browse our publication list, check out our research in the news, as well as our group portal and contact info.

We also host a virtual blog-like journal club which regularly surveys recent literature in the topics we are interested in.

X-ray Speckle reveals nanoscale spin dynamics