Physical Properties Measurements Laboratory

Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
Group of physics of strongly correlated materials ON-2.4
building VIII, room 107
head of the laboratory: prof. Marta Cieplak
marta@ifpan.edu.pl

PPMS (Physical Property Measurement System), produced by Quantum Design

This is an open architecture, variable temperature-magnetic field system designed to perform automated measurements of various physical properties. The basic part consists of superconducting magnet and low-temperature cryostat, allowing for the measurements in wide field and temperature ranges, with the following features.

• Magnetic field in the range 0 – 9 Tesla;
• Sealed sample chamber with 2.6 cm diameter sample access;
• Versatile sample mounts which couple easily into cryostat insert;
• Temperature range 1.9 K do 400K (basic version), including long-term stabilization, and the temperature sweep modes;
• Microprocessor-based device for the control of the field, temperature, and current sweeps, and for the data registration and analysis;
• A possibility of integrated control of external instruments for user-defined experiments.

Measurement options

1. Electrical transport

DC resistivity : current range 5 nA – 5 mA, sensitivity 20 nV

• 4-point method – up to 3 regularly shaped samples in a single sequence measurement, total sample-mounting area 8 mm x 9 mm;
• van der Pauw method – irregularly shaped sample with uniform thickness;

AC measurements: current range 10 µA – 2 A, sensitivity 1 nV at 1 kHz

• frequency range: 1 Hz – 1 kHz;
• resistivity, Hall effect (4-point or 5-point method), I-V characteristics, critical current –  up to 2 regularly shaped samples in a single sequence measurement, sample-mounting area 8 mm x 9 mm.

2. Thermal transport

Thermal conductivity ĸ, thermopower (Seeback coefficient α), AC electrical resistivity ρ, and thermoelectric figure of merit ZT, which is an algebraic combination ZT =α2T/(ĸρ) of the three measured quantities; maximum sample size 10 mm x 10 mm.

3. Heat capacity

Coefficient of specific heat, temperature range 1.9 – 400 K; resolution 10 nJ/K at T = 2 K; Sample size: 1 - 500 mg.

4. Helium-3 Refrigerator System

This is a closed-cycle ³He probe, expands the temperature range below the standard 1.9 K; temperature range 0.5 – 2 K; compatible with electrical transport and heat capacity measurement options.

5. Sample rotators for electrical transport

Computer-controlled precision rotation of the sample stage with respect to magnetic field and the current direction; range of rotation: -10 deg  do 370 deg, step 0.05 deg .

Publications:

1. I. Zaytseva, O. Abal’oshev , P. Dłużewski, W. Paszkowicz, L. Y. Zhu, C. L. Chien, M. Kończykowski and Marta Z. Cieplak, “Negative Hall coefficient of ultrathin niobium in Si/Nb/Si trilayers”, Phys. Rev. B 90, 060505(R) (2014). link
2. I. Zaytseva, A. Abal'oshev, P. Dluzewski, R. Minikayev, M. Z. Cieplak L.Y.Zhu, C.L.Chien, „Ultrathin niobium in the Si/Nb/Si trilayers”, Acta Phys. Pol. A 126, 140 (2014). link
3. V.L. Bezusyy, D.J. Gawryluk, A. Malinowski, M. Berkowski and M.Z. Cieplak, “Influence of Iron Substitutions on the Transport Properties of FeTe0.65Se0.35 Single Crystals”, Acta Phys. Pol. A 126, 76 (2014). link
4. Y. Syryanyy, M. Aleszkiewicz, Marta Z. Cieplak, L.Y. Zhu and C.L. Chien, “Phase Diagram and Activation Energy for Vortex Pinning, in Nb/(Co,Pd) Superconductor- Ferromagnet Bilayer”, Acta Phys. Pol. A 126, 123 (2014). link