NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:
A photo of the winner with her mentors is available on the Web at
http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/nr/2006/02feb/021006cruzsstate.html.
A high-resolution photo is available by contacting Lisa Merkl.
NEW MEMORY STORAGE DEVICES ON HORIZON
WITH UH STUDENT’S AWARD-WINNING WORK
Faster Access to Music, Movies Possible with Developments in Solid
State Physics
HOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2006 – A University of Houston student’s
award-winning research in solid state physics may one day provide
faster, more efficient access to data, music and movies in such
hand-held devices as MP3 players and cellular phones.
A third-year graduate student in physics at UH, Clarina dela Cruz
recently captured first prize in the worldwide student competition
of the 50th Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference. This event
annually brings together scientists and engineers from the world
over who are interested in recent developments in all branches of
fundamental and applied magnetism. The student competition recognizes
research excellence at the graduate level, with the winner receiving
a $1,000 fellowship and facing stiff competition from such institutions
as the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands), Stanford University
and Johns Hopkins University.
“I considered it a major achievement simply to be chosen
as one of the five finalists,” dela Cruz said. “I did
not expect to win the competition because of the strength of my
competitors who attend very prestigious universities.”
Working under the supervision of Paul C.W. Chu, the TLL Temple Chair
of Science, physics professor and founding director of the Texas
Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH),
dela Cruz began her own research on the magneto-electric effects
in multiferroic compounds after joining Chu’s High-Pressure
Low-Temperature Group at TcSUH in January 2004. These new materials
bear the potential for the future development of a new type of memory
storage device and eventually may be found in any computer as a
magneto-electric hard drive or for speeding up hand-held devices.
“Clarina is a highly motivated, bright student with an unusual
experimental skill,” Chu said. “This honor is a reflection
of her dedication and hard work. In a very short period of time
after joining our group, she has developed a high precision technique
under the guidance of Professor Bernd Lorenz and obtained data that
others cannot in the exciting emerging subfield of solid state physics
– multiferroics. She can be very proud of her achievement.”
As a student of Lorenz, the TcSUH research associate professor under
whom dela Cruz is working, her understanding of solid state physics
deepened significantly, and her interests quickly spread from superconductivity
to magnetism and ferroelectricity – some of the most fundamental
phenomena in condensed matter physics.
“The magneto-electric interaction present in these materials
allows for a change of the electric polarization by an external
magnetic field or the control of the magnetization using electric
fields,” said Lorenz. “This cross correlation of magnetic
and electric properties provides the physical basis for future new
developments in memory storage. In magneto-electric memory, media
bytes will be written by magnetic write heads, as realized in any
standard hard drive, but the stored information can be read electrically
by detecting the subtle changes of the electric polarization induced
in the magnetic write process.”
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about TcSUH, visit the center’s Web
site at http://www.tcsuh.uh.edu/.
To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html.
For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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