Professor Kelly Morrison

  • Head of Department (Physics)
  • Professor of Experimental Physics
Publications
ORCiD Google Scholar
Kelly Morrison

Research areas

  • Magnetism – magnetocaloric effect, spin glasses, magnetic domains. 
  • Thin film deposition and devices, including 2D materials and heterostructures. 
  • Scanning probe microscopy techniques, including thermal scanning lithography. 
  • Spin caloritronics – in particular the spin Seebeck effect. 
  • Phase transitions – universality, latent heat, hysteresis and definition of a first order phase transition. 
  • Heat capacity measurements – standardisation and limits.
  • Neutron scattering – reflectivity, elastic and inelastic scattering as a probe of magnetic structure and excitations. 
  • Superconductivity. 

Emergent phenomena and metamaterials 

Metamaterials are materials and/or devices that have been engineered to have properties that would not naturally occur, such as magnetic invisibility cloaks (“A dc magnetic metamaterial”, Nature Materials 2008). Nanolithography is one method being used to create metamaterial arrays, and which, when implemented in the right way, could lead to emergent phenomena such as superconductivity in otherwise normal materials. 

Spintronics 

Spintronics, or ‘spin electronics’ is a possible route for next generation computing. It relies on the intrinsic ‘spin’ of an electron to convey information, rather than charge currents, and has the possible advantages of lower energy demand and higher data storage capacity. 

The Spin Seebeck Effect: A new breed of thermoelectrics?

A thermal gradient applied across a metallic, insulating, or semiconducting magnet can result in the generation of a spin polarized current. Similar to its bulk counterpart (the Seebeck effect), this generation of spin current due to a thermal gradient has thus been dubbed ‘the spin Seebeck effect’.

The Magnetocaloric Effect: Possibility for Magnetic Refrigeration?

The magnetocaloric effect manifests as a change in temperature of a material on adiabatic application of magnetic field as a result of conservation of entropy. Recent research into this effect has focussed on the potential application for room temperature magnetic refrigeration as a more efficient alternative to the current gas compression technology.

  • Head of Department 
  • Manager of nanolithography system, CFMS lab and x-ray reflectometers 
  • H&S Hazard Lead High Magnetic field and Cryogen 
  • Radiation Protection Supervisor 

Selected publications:

  1. Enhancement of spin Seebeck effect in Fe3O4/Pt thin films with α-Fe nanodroplets, Appl. Phys. Lett. 123, 172408 (2023) 
  2. Magnon diffusion lengths in bulk and thin film Fe3O4 for spin Seebeck applications, Phys. Rev. Mat. 4, 075402 (2020) 
  3. Anomalous Nernst effect in Co2MnSi thin films, J. Phys. D 53 035005 (2019)
  4. Spin Seebeck effect in polycrystalline yttrium iron garnet pellets prepared by the solid-state method, EPL 126 37001 (2019) 
  5. “Microstructural control and tuning of thermal conductivity in La0.67Ca0.33MnO3” J.A. Turcaud, K. Morrison, A. Berenov, N.M. Alford, K.G. Sandeman, and L.F. Cohen, Scripta Mater. 68, 510 (2013)
  6. “Evaluation of the reliability of the measurement of key magnetocaloric properties: A round robin study of La(Fe,Si,Mn)Hδ conducted by the SSEEC consortium of European laboratories” K. Morrison, K.G. Sandeman, L.F. Cohen, C.P. Sasso, V. Basso, A. Barcza, M. Katter, J.D. Moore, K.P. Skokov and O. Gutfleisch, Int. J. Refrig. 35, 1528 (2012)
  7. “Reducing extrinsic hysteresis in first-order La(Fe,Co,Si)13 magnetocaloric systems” J.D. Moore, K. Morrison, K.G. Sandeman, M. Katter and L.F. Cohen, Appl. Phys. Lett., 95 252504 (2009)
  8. “Metamagnetism Seeded by Nanostructural Features of Single-Crystalline Gd5Si2Ge2” J.D. Moore, K. Morrison, G.K. Perkins, D.L. Schlagel, T.A. Lograsso, K.A. Gschneidner, Jr., V.K. Pecharsky and L.F. Cohen Adv. Mater., 21 1–4 (2009)
  9. “Heat capacity and latent heat measurements of CoMnSi using a microcalorimeter” Y. Miyoshi, K. Morrison, J. D. Moore, A. D. Caplin and L. F. Cohen, Rev. Sci. Instrum., 79 074901 (2008)