Simon J. Bending

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Simon J. Bending

FInstP
SimonBending.jpg
Prof Simon J. Bending - 09 Feb 2022
Born (1957-10-29) October 29, 1957 (age 65)
Brentwood, Essex, UK
Alma mater University of Cambridge
Known for Superconductivity
Scanning Hall probe microscopy
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Tunneling and Transport via Localised States in α-Si Tunnel Barriers  (1985)
Doctoral advisor Malcolm Beasley
Other academic advisors Malcolm Beasley
Theodore H. Geballe
Klaus von Klitzing
Website people.bath.ac.uk/pyssb/profsj.htm

Simon John Bending, FInstP (born 29 October 1957) is a British physicist. He is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath, where he was the Head of department from 2013 to 2016. [1] He is co-director of the Bath-Exeter Centre for Graphene Science [2] [3] and deputy director of the Bath-Bristol EPRSC Centre for Doctoral Training in Condensed Matter Physics. [4] [5] He developed scanning Hall probe microscopy [6] and has made notable contributions to the field of superconductors. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

Contents

Early life and education

Bending was born in Brentwood, Essex 29 October 1957 and attended St Peter's School, [13] in South Weald, from 1962 to 1969 and then King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford from 1969 to 1976. In 1979, he graduated B.A. Hons (1st. class) in Natural Sciences - Physics from the University of Cambridge. He obtained his PhD in 1985, from the Applied Physics Department at Stanford University. [1]

Research

Following his PhD, Bending joined the group of Dr P. Guéret at IBM Research Laboratories, Zürich, Switzerland, as a postdoc, in 1985. In 1986, he became a postdoc in the group of Prof. Klaus von Klitzing, at the Max Planck Institut FKF, in Stuttgart, Germany. An year earlier, Von Klitzing had been awarded the Physics Nobel Prize. Bending joined the University of Bath in 1989, first as a Lecturer and then as a Senior Lecturer, from 1995. In 1991–92, Bending supervised Andre Geim as a postdoc in his group. Geim was subsequently awarded the 2010 Physics Nobel Prize. In 1996, Bending was promoted to Reader and, in 2000, he was appointed to a personal chair in the Department of Physics.

Much of Bending's research evolved from his development of scanning Hall probe microscopy. [6] Highlights of his work include studies of vortex matter in highly anisotropic superconductors, [7] [8] ferromagnetic superconductors, [9] [14] ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructures, [10] domain wall phenomena and dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films [11] and the realisation of novel hybrid material structures by electrocrystallisation. [12] [15] [16] More recently the focus of Bending's research has shifted to new physics in two-dimensional crystals, e.g., graphene and other layered (super)conductors. [17] [18]

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The field of spintronics concerns spin-charge coupling in metallic systems; the analogous effects in insulators fall into the field of multiferroics.

In superconductivity, a semifluxon is a half integer vortex of supercurrent carrying the magnetic flux equal to the half of the magnetic flux quantum Φ0. Semifluxons exist in the 0-π long Josephson junctions at the boundary between 0 and π regions. This 0-π boundary creates a π discontinuity of the Josephson phase. The junction reacts to this discontinuity by creating a semifluxon. Vortex's supercurrent circulates around 0-π boundary. In addition to semifluxon, there exist also an antisemifluxon. It carries the flux −Φ0/2 and its supercurrent circulates in the opposite direction.

In superconductivity, a Josephson vortex is a quantum vortex of supercurrents in a Josephson junction. The supercurrents circulate around the vortex center which is situated inside the Josephson barrier, unlike Abrikosov vortices in type-II superconductors, which are located in the superconducting condensate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majorana fermion</span> Fermion that is its own antiparticle

A Majorana fermion, also referred to as a Majorana particle, is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesised by Ettore Majorana in 1937. The term is sometimes used in opposition to a Dirac fermion, which describes fermions that are not their own antiparticles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantum vortex</span> Quantized flux circulation of some physical quantity

In physics, a quantum vortex represents a quantized flux circulation of some physical quantity. In most cases, quantum vortices are a type of topological defect exhibited in superfluids and superconductors. The existence of quantum vortices was first predicted by Lars Onsager in 1949 in connection with superfluid helium. Onsager reasoned that quantisation of vorticity is a direct consequence of the existence of a superfluid order parameter as a spatially continuous wavefunction. Onsager also pointed out that quantum vortices describe the circulation of superfluid and conjectured that their excitations are responsible for superfluid phase transitions. These ideas of Onsager were further developed by Richard Feynman in 1955 and in 1957 were applied to describe the magnetic phase diagram of type-II superconductors by Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov. In 1935 Fritz London published a very closely related work on magnetic flux quantization in superconductors. London's fluxoid can also be viewed as a quantum vortex.

A Josephson junction is a quantum mechanical device which is made of two superconducting electrodes separated by a barrier. A π Josephson junction is a Josephson junction in which the Josephson phase φ equals π in the ground state, i.e. when no external current or magnetic field is applied.

In a standard superconductor, described by a complex field fermionic condensate wave function, vortices carry quantized magnetic fields because the condensate wave function is invariant to increments of the phase by . There a winding of the phase by creates a vortex which carries one flux quantum. See quantum vortex.

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Ferromagnetic superconductors are materials that display intrinsic coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity. They include UGe2, URhGe, and UCoGe. Evidence of ferromagnetic superconductivity was also reported for ZrZn2 in 2001, but later reports question these findings. These materials exhibit superconductivity in proximity to a magnetic quantum critical point.

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Alexandre Bouzdine (Buzdin) (in Russian - Александр Иванович Буздин; born March 16, 1954) is a French and Russian theoretical physicist in the field of superconductivity and condensed matter physics. He was awarded the Holweck Medal in physics in 2013 and obtained the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize in 2019 for his theoretical contributions in the field of coexistence between superconductivity and magnetism.

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References

  1. 1 2 Prof Simon Bending University of Bath profile
  2. ↑ EPSRC grant details
  3. ↑ University of Exeter press release
  4. ↑ The CDR-CMP team
  5. ↑ EPSRC grant details
  6. 1 2 Oral, A.; Bending, S.J.; Henini, M. (1996). "Real‐time scanning Hall probe microscopy". Applied Physics Letters. 69 (9): 1324–1326. Bibcode:1996ApPhL..69.1324O. doi:10.1063/1.117582.
  7. 1 2 Grigorenko, A.; Bending, S.J.; Tamegai, T.; Ooi, S.; Henini, M. (2001). "A one-dimensional chain state of vortex matter". Nature. 414 (6865): 728–731. Bibcode:2001Natur.414..728G. doi:10.1038/414728a. PMID   11742393. S2CID   4384475.
  8. 1 2 Cole, D.; Bending, S.J.; Savel'Ev, S.; Grigorenko, A.; Tamegai, T.; Nori, F. (2006). "Ratchet without spatial asymmetry for controlling the motion of magnetic flux quanta using time-asymmetric drives". Nature Materials. 5 (4): 305–311. Bibcode:2006NatMa...5..305C. doi:10.1038/nmat1608. PMID   16532001. S2CID   123223565.
  9. 1 2 Collomb, D.; Bending, S.J.; Koshelev, A.E.; Smylie, M.P.; Farrar, L.; Bao, K.-B.; Chung, D.Y.; Kanatzidis, M.G.; Kwok, W.-K.; Welp, U. (2021). "Observing the Suppression of Superconductivity in BrEuFe4As4 by Correlated Magnetic Fluctuations". Physical Review Letters. 126 (15): 157001. arXiv: 2010.09901 . Bibcode:2021PhRvL.126o7001C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.157001. PMID   33929261. S2CID   224803375.
  10. 1 2 Van Bael, M.J.; Bekaert, J.; Temst, K.; Van Look, L.; Moshchalkov, V.V.; Bruynseraede, Y.; Howells, G.D.; Grigorenko, A.N.; Bending, S.J.; Borghs, G. (2001). "Local observation of field polarity dependent flux pinning by magnetic dipoles". Physical Review Letters. 86 (1): 155–158. Bibcode:2001PhRvL..86..155V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.155. PMID   11136117.
  11. 1 2 San Emeterio Alvarez, L.; Wang, K.-Y.; Lepadatu, S.; Landi, S.; Bending, S.J.; Marrows, C.H. (2010). "Spin-transfer-torque-assisted domain-wall creep in a Co/Pt multilayer wire". Physical Review Letters. 104 (13): 137205. Bibcode:2010PhRvL.104m7205S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.137205. PMID   20481911.
  12. 1 2 Lukyanchuk, I.; Vinokur, V.M.; Rydh, A.; Xie, R.; Milošević, M.V.; Welp, U.; Zach, M.; Xiao, Z.L.; Crabtree, G.W.; Bending, S.J.; Peeters, F.M.; Kwok, W.-K. (2015). "Rayleigh instability of confined vortex droplets in critical superconductors". Nature Physics. 11 (1): 21–25. Bibcode:2015NatPh..11...21L. doi: 10.1038/nphys3146 .
  13. ↑ St Peter’s School
  14. ↑ Physicists Uncover New Mechanism Enabling Magnetism and Superconductivity to Co-exist in the Same Material
  15. ↑ Flokstra, M.G.; Satchell, N.; Kim, J.; Burnell, G.; Curran, P.J.; Bending, S.J.; JFK Cooper, M.; Cooper, J.F.K.; Kinane, C.J.; Langridge, S.; Isidori, A.; Pugach, N.; Eschrig, M.; Luetkens, H.; Suter, A.; Prokscha, T.; Lee, S.L. (2016). "Remotely induced magnetism in a normal metal using a superconducting spin-valve". Nature Physics. 12 (1): 57–61. arXiv: 1505.03565 . Bibcode:2016NatPh..12...57F. doi:10.1038/nphys3486. S2CID   31851623.
  16. ↑ Magnetised gold heralds new generation of electronics
  17. ↑ Farrar, L.S.; Nevill, A; Lim, Z.J.; Balakrishnan, G.; Dale, S.; Bending, S.J. (2021). "Superconducting Quantum Interference in Twisted van der Waals Heterostructures". Nano Letters. 21 (16): 6725–6731. arXiv: 2101.04557 . Bibcode:2021NanoL..21.6725F. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00152. PMC   8397396 . PMID   34428907.
  18. ↑ Superconducting flakes could outperform quantum computer parts
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