Dielectric investigations of novel ladder compounds

As high temperature superconductivity often occurs in many materials in proximity to the antiferromagnetic ground state, special attention is given to the non-superconducting relatives of these systems. Understanding the magnetism in these materials is an important issue. Recent magnetic studies showed that broad range of magnetic ground states can be found in these ladder compounds, and versatile nature of the chemical composition allow one to investigate the properties in a systematic way.

Our recent efforts revealed that some of these novel ladder compounds possess magneto-elastic and magneto-dielectric properties putting them in a special place and hints towards possible multiferroic nature of these compounds. The aim of this bachelor project is to investigate the polarization-dependent dielectric properties of the ladder compounds and look for the magneto-dielectric signatures. Measurements between 4 – 300 K and 40 Hz - 10 MHz are planned for the investigation.