Energy : DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI Meeting 2015 - Day 3. Alternatif Energy

Things I learned from the last (half)day of the DOE PI meeting:

• "vortex explosion" would be a good name for a 1980s metal band.
• Pulsed high fields make possible some really amazing measurements in both high \(T_{\mathrm{C}}\) materials and more exotic things like SmB₆.
• Looking at structural defects (twinning) and magnetic structural issues (spin orientation domain walls) can give insights into complicated issues in pnictide superconductors.
• Excitons can be a nice system for looking at coherence phenomena ordinarily seen in cold atom systems.  See here and here.  Theory proposes that you could play with these at room temperature with the right material system.
• Thermal gradients can drive spin currents even in insulating paramagnets, and these can be measured with techniques that could be performed down to small length scales. 
• Very general symmetry considerations when discussing competing ordered states (superconductivity, charge density wave order, spin density wave order) can lead to testable predictions.
• Hybrid, monocrystalline nanoparticles combining metals and semiconductors are very pretty and can let you drive physical processes based on the properties of both material systems.