Paul M. Shand
Professor of Physics
e-mail: Paul.Shand@uni.edu

Teaching

Dr. Paul M. Shand teaches physics courses at all levels. Most recently, he has taught Modern Physics, Modern Physics Laboratory, and Classical Mechanics. He has also recently taught General Physics I and General Physics II, which constitute the algebra-based introductory physics sequence. Dr. Shand has also recently developed and taught the course Physics of Modern Materials.

Research

 Overview Shand and Cooling
Dr. Shand does experimental research in the area of magnetic materials. He has studied the fundamental magnetic properties of such materials as rare-earth-based nanostructured materials, diluted magnetic semiconductors, manganites exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance, multilayered systems exhibiting giant magnetoresistance (GMR), and titanomagnetites. Currently, Dr. Shand is involved in studying the fundamental magnetic and electronic properties of bulk crystalline and nanostructured low-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide materials. Dr. Shand also continues to study the magnetic properties of rare-earth nanostructures.

Why is This Research Useful?

Rare-earth alloys are used to make magnets that have a variety of properties. For example, the very strong "supermagnets" that you have probably seen contain neodymium, which is a rare-earth element. Studying rare-earth alloys and nanostructures will help us to develop magnets and magnetic materials with improved properties.                      

The hard drive in your computer is read using sensors based upon giant magnetoresistance (GMR). GMR produces a large electrical response to small magnetic fields. Stronger GMR response would enable higher storage density for hard drives. Thus, looking for materials that exhibit strong magnetoresistance is important and useful.

Diluted magnetic semiconductors combine semiconductor properties and magnetic properties. Silicon is a semiconductor. It is extensively used in the electronics industry in the fabrication of information-processing microchips of all sorts. If we could find a semiconductor similar to silicon that is magnetic, then information processing could be combined with magnetic storage on a single microchip. This could lead to a new kind of computing.

What Students Learn
The magnetic measurements that Dr. Shand does are typically conducted over a range of temperatures, bottoming out at 2 K. Further, magnetic fields up to 7 teslas (more than 100,000 times the strength of the Earth's field) can be applied. Thus, in addition to learning about the properties of magnetic materials and how to analyze magnetism data, students also learn about cryogenic (low-temperature) techniques and high-field magnets. These skills (data analysis, cryogenics, using high magnetic fields) are useful for experimental work in graduate school and for research and development positions in industry. Almost all of my research students have attended graduate school after leaving UNI.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Recent Publications (Dr. Shand's Students Underlined)                                                       

T. E. Kidd, A. O'Shea, B. Beck, R. He, C. Delaney, P. M. Shand, L. H. Strauss, A. Stollenwerk, N. Hurley, and G. Gu, “Universal Method for Creating Optically Active Nanostructures on Layered Materials,” Langmuir (accepted for publication, 2014)

R. He, T-F. Chung, C. Delaney, C. Keiser, L. A. Jauregui, P. M. Shand, C. C. Chancey, Y. Wang, J. Bao, and Yong P. Chen, “Observation of Low Energy Raman Modes in Twisted Bilayer Graphene,”  Nano Letters 13, 3594-3601 (2013)

T. E. Kidd, A. O’Shea, Z. Griffith, S. Leslie, P. M. Shand, K. R. Boyle, and L. H. Strauss, “Synthesis of Magnetic 1D Dichalcogenide Nanostructures,” Journal of Nanoparticle Research 14, 903-1-10 (2012)

P. M. Shand, A. L. Meyer, M. Streicher, A. Wilson, T. Rash, T. E. Kidd, and L. H. Strauss, “Coulomb-driven cluster-glass behavior in Mn-intercalated Ti1+yS2,” Physical Review B 85, 144432-1–8 (2012)

P. M. Shand, D. C. Schmitter, G. Rojas, J. E. Shield, J. Goertzen, A. L. Meyer, T. M. Pekarek, M. J. Kramer, and D. L. Leslie-Pelecky, "Correlating Structure with Ferromagnetism in Melt-Spun Gd100-xFex, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 509, 3000–3005 (2011)

P. M. Shand, T. Rash, M. Streicher, T. E. Kidd, K. R. Boyle, and L. H. Strauss, "Coercivity and exchange bias of Mn0.25Ti1.1S2 in the cluster-glass state," Physical Review B 82, 214413-1–8 (2010)

P. M. Shand, J. G. Bohnet, N. H. Jensen, J. Goertzen, V. J. Litwinowicz, J. E. Shield, D. Schmitter, G. Rojas, and D.L. Leslie-Pelecky, “Critical properties of the paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transition in nanocrystalline Gd diluted with Fe,” Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 322, 3303–3309 (2010)

T. M. Pekarek, E. M. Watson, P. M. Shand, I. Miotkowski, and A. K. Ramdas, “Spin-glass ordering in the layered III-VI diluted magnetic semiconductor Ga1-xMnxS,” Journal of Applied Physics 107, 09E136-1–3 (2010).

J. L. Harris, P. M. Shand, L. V. Shapoval, A. Van Waardhuizen, and L. H. Strauss, “Magnetic properties of the II-V diluted semiconductor Cd1-xMnxSb,” Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 321, 1072–1076 (2009).

P. M. Shand, J. G. Bohnet, J. Goertzen, J. E. Shield, D. Schmitter, G. Shelburne, and D. L. Leslie-Pelecky, “Magnetic Properties of Melt-Spun Gadolinium” Physical Review B 77, 184415-1–11 (2008).

Google Scholar Citations

Click the link above to see Dr. Shand's papers and citations in Google Scholar.