As of May 29th, 2014, I officially got the job offer and I accepted. I am going to be in Australia, Sydney and become an instrumental scientist at ANSTO (Australian nuclear science and technology organisation) from Sep. 1st 2014. My task is maintaining the instrument SIKA (Cold 3-Axis Spectrometer) installed at research rector OPAL (Open-pool Australian light water reactor), promoting science and experimental techniques. This instrument actually is founded by National Central University and National Science Council in Taiwan. By the way, I am Japanese though.
I am an experimental physicist. What the physicist does is not easy to answer though, today I want to tell you how we can cover form particle to space. Actually, physicists are divided into three groups based on the concept of “scale”. The scale is the length the interactions can reach. Particle physicists study things smaller than atom (10-8 m), space physics studies larger than (10+7 m). Particle physicist try to answer “What is the minimum component in the world”, Space physicists try to answer “What kind of law rule universe”, I am trying to answer what is the origin of physical property of material. As you know the material such as metal, insulator, magnets, are close to our size. That’s why I chose studying material because the “scale” is close to me. So, I can do planning experiment, do experiment, measure properties, analyze the data, make presentation, and write paper. I could do almost everything by myself.
I am studying magnetic material which can be used as every part of science and engineering. It has physical properties. If I could find out why this material becomes magnetic material, chemists are able to use the law to find new magnetic materials, engineers will be able to use the new materials. The strongest point of physicists is thinking “why??”
So, I am studying magnets. The main things, we are trying to answer those 2 questions which are
- What does the magnetic structure look like?
- Why does the structure come from?
So, there is the smallest magnet, so called spin, in materials. Spin is the rotation of electron in the material. For us, if there is the magnetic material, the first question can be asked, how are the spins aligned in the material? Basically, we finished every possible candidate for magnetic material. However, some of them are very complex which have never been solved. One thing I want to do is solving the magnetic structure of magnetic material which has never been solved. Solving this problem is actually so much fun, something like, solving the puzzle which no one has ever solved.
The second question can be why the material forms such magnetic structure. To find this, basically, we need to hit one of atoms or spins and to make waves in material. Because the spin and atoms are connected, by hitting one of them, we can see the wave. By looking at how the wave behaves, we could know how the spins and atoms are connected in the material.
I use neutron to do these. Neutron can be produced by reactor or accelerator. The next time, I will explain why neutron is important for answering these questions.