LTHMFL - Multipurpose Magnetic and Specific Heat Characterization Facility

MagLab 2000

(Funding: Contract PRAXIS/PCEX/P/FIS/1/96 (50´106 PTE - 40´106 PTE to ITN).

MagLab 2000 (Oxford Inst.) is a facility capable of multipurpose characterization measurements at low temperatures and under fields up to 12 T. The system comprises a variable temperature insert, operating in the range 1.5-400 K inside a 12 T magnet with a 50 mm bore with several easily interchangeable probes:
• One type of probe allows either magnetisation measurements by an extraction technique or AC-susceptibility measurements with a considerable high sensitivity (10-8 emu) and large range of frequencies (10-10000 Hz) which allows to perform dynamic studies.
• Another type of probe, allows specific heat measurements of small samples (~5 mg) in the range 2-200 K using a relaxation technique and under different magnetic fields up to 12 T.

MagLab 2000 Facility

All these measurements are highly automated in a user-friendly environment. These characteristics allow either routine magnetic measurements complementary to those obtained with other techniques, for instance with the SQUID magnetometer, or easy specific heat determinations in small samples.
This facility is mainly used to magnetically characterize a wide variety of different materials such as:
• Intermetallics with d and f elements (rare earth and/or actinides) in both permanent magnetic and heavy fermion systems
• New multifunctional molecular-based materials (from transition metals to rare earth and/or actinides) with unconventional magnetic behaviour such as spin glass, spin crossover and single molecule magnets
• Molecular Conductors
• Magnetic oxides and magnetic nanoparticles

Responsible Researcher: Laura C. J. Pereira.

Access to the equipment:

This equipment is available to the scientific community, on the basis of research cooperation and co-authorship of publications in international scientific journals and presentations in Conferences.