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Faculty
  Despina Louca   Despina Louca
Maxine S. and Jesse W. Beams Professor of Physics , Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Ph.D., 1997, Pennsylvania

dl4f@Virginia.EDU email   924-6802 tel 317 JBL Office
  RESEARCH INTERESTS
     

The interactions of the spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom in solids often lead to the emergence of unique properties that exhibit distinct characteristics under external influences. The class of materials that are of interest includes, but are not limited to, the magnetoresistive perovskite oxides, bulk metallic alloys, superconductors, and multiferroics. Understanding the macroscopic functionality of these systems can be potentially very useful for industrial applications. Louca’s research focuses on understanding their responses as a function of temperature, pressure, and magnetic fields by probing the atomic and magnetic structures and dynamics using scattering techniques performed at national and international neutron and X-ray facilities. The group makes use of analysis tools combined with modeling to examine atomic correlations at very small length scales under extreme conditions, probes lattice dynamics and magnetic interactions. The group is also involved with materials synthesis and characterization of the bulk properties.
  RESEARCH GROUP(S)
     

Metallic Glasses
  SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
     

"Suppression of magnetic coupling by in-plane buckling in SrFeO2", K. Horigane, A. Llobet, and D. Louca, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 097001 (2014).

"Intertwining of frustration with magneto-elastic coupling in the multiferroic LuMnO3", S. Yano, D. Louca, S. Chi, M. Matsuda, Y. Qiu, J. R. D. Copley, S. W. Cheong, J. Phys. Soc. JPN 83, 024601 (2014).

"Local strain and anharmonicity in the bonding of Bi2Se3-xTex topological insulators", K. Park, Y. Nomura, R. Arita, A. Llobet, D. Louca, Phys. Rev. B 88, 224108 (2013).

"The hybrid lattice of KxFe2-ySe2: why superconductivity and magnetism can coexist", D. Louca, K. Park, B. Li, J. Neuefeind, J. Yan, Scientific Reports 3, doi:10.1038/srep02047 (2013).

"Magnetic transition broadening and local lattice distortion in the negative thermal expansion antiperovskites Cu1-xSnxNMn3", P. Tong, D. Louca, G. King, A. Llobet, J. C. Lin and Y. P. Sun, Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 041908 (2013).

"Oxygen mediated magneto-electric coupling in LuMnO3", P. Tong, D. Louca, N. Lee, and S.-W. Cheong, Phys. Rev. B 86, 094419 (2012).

"Possible Link of a Structurally Driven Spin Flip Transition and the Insulator-Metal Transition in the Perovskite La1-xBaxCoO3", P. Tong, J. Yu, Q. Huang, K. Yamada, and D. Louca, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 156407 (2011).
  NEWS ITEMS
     
Despina Louca’s group, and in particular graduate student Aaron Wegner and postdoctoral researcher Junjie Yang, has discovered a way to boost the magnetoresistance in the I-Mn-V class of ......More >
Researchers at UVa found a way through strain engineering to manipulate the electronic band structure, and induce large, reversible response of the magnetoresistive properties under high ......More >
Prof. Despina Louca has been elected to serve a four year term as President of the Neutron Scattering Society of America. See  More >
Dear Colleagues,   Peter Arnold and Despina Louca have been elected 2014 APS Fellows. Please join me to say “congratulations” to these two ......More >
Despina Louca, with her colleagues at UT Austin, received one of the three MIRT awards made by the National Science Foundation this year among high competition.The Materials Interdisciplinary ......More >
Despina Louca and Olivier Pfister have been promoted to Full Professors and Mark Williams to Research Professor of Physics and Professor of Radiology, effective August 25, 2011....More >
  HONORS
     
APS Fellow [2014]
For demonstration of the importance of the local atomic structure for elucidating the physical properties of complex oxides including the transition metal oxides through neutron scattering using the pair-density-function analysis.
  COURSES (Fall 2018)
     

 

ROSTER

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