Add to Calendar 2026-05-28T09:30:00 2026-05-28T11:30:00 High entropy in technicolor: exploring the disorder-properties connection in high entropy materials through spectroscopy Event Information: Abstract: Disorder has traditionally been seen as a bug, rather than a feature, in the study of materials. In certain cases, however, disorder is designed into a material’s very atomic arrangement. That is the case in high entropy oxides (HEOs). In HEOs, five cations are made to randomly distribute across a single crystallographic position, coordinated by oxygen anions. This unique random arrangement results in unique thermodynamics, but does not preclude emergent phenomena — such as magnetism — from taking place. Therefore, HEOs are a unique playground to study how disorder and magnetism interact. However, the same chemical complexity that makes HEOs interesting renders their study challenging. Ideally, we want to connect the structure and properties of an HEO to its composition, but most characterization techniques return an average response, with no insight as to what each cation is doing.  In my thesis talk, I will explain how we can use element-specific spectroscopy techniques to circumvent these limitations. I will present how these techniques allow us to connect crystal structure, composition, and functionality in HEOs. I will show how these insights can enable control of magnetism and effective disorder in this class of materials. Then I will segue onto how we can use them to identify ideal conditions for their synthesis. Finally, I will demonstrate how we can even use these techniques enable us to understand how components in an HEO interact with each other and shape their overall magnetism.  Event Location: Brimacombe 188