Dr. Serif Uran's Research

High Temperature Oxidation

My research interests are mostly in experimental solid state physics. Particularly, I am interested in high temperature oxidation of metals. I use relatively new techniques to characterize native oxide formed at high temperatures on alloys. Native oxide can provide protection for the substrate alloy against further oxidation. Therefore, it is important to retain the oxide layer. I study the stress, thickness change and composition of the oxide film, which give clues about the integrity of the oxide layer.

Magnetoresistive

I also have an interest in magnetic thin films and electrical/optical characterization of magnetoresistance. Magnetoresistive thin films are of interest due to their potential for computer read heads. Thin (~2 nm) magnetic and non-magnetic (spacer) metal layers can be deposited on substrates (i.e., Silicon, MgO, Sapphire etc.). This structure is called superlattice. By controlling the spacer layer thickness one can change the magnetization of the film from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic. Granular films can also be studied to achieve ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic behavior. Particle size could be an important parameter in this case.

Studying binary liquid mixtures can give us information about critical phenomenon, which deals with how two different constituents mix under different conditions. Specifically, magnetization can be considered as a critical phenomenon since spin up and spin down electrons can be considered as binary mixture.