Dr Stuart Wimbush

Biography

A physicist by training, I have drifted gradually in the direction of materials science from the time of my PhD studying the interaction between superconductivity and magnetism through my first postdoctoral Fellowship working more broadly on superconducting materials to my position in Cambridge investigating and developing functional oxides. Presently funded by a Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust, the focus of my research is on Novel Flux Pinning Mechanisms in Superconductors, where I have recently developed a promising approach to flux pinning by magnetic additions.

- 2000-2004 Doctoral Candidate, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Germany.

- 2004-2006 ICYS Research Fellow, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan.

- 2006-2009 Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK.

- 2009-present Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge. College Research Associate, St. John's College, Cambridge.

Academic and Professional Qualifications

- 1998 MPhys Applied Physics, University of Salford, UK.

- 2004 PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) Physics, TU Dresden, Germany.

- 2007 Chartered Physicist (CPhys).

- 2009 Associate of the Higher Education Academy (AHEA).

Research

I am interested in the synthesis and properties of functional materials, that is to say materials that “do something”, for example semiconductors, magnetic materials and superconductors. Many (but not all) of these materials turn out to be oxides, and are typically difficult to synthesise, which is why much of my work focuses on materials synthesis either by thin film deposition or, newly, by biochemical approaches. Beyond this, I investigate and develop the properties of the materials and their interactions, which may encompass ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, magnetostriction, piezoelectricity, magnetoresistance, photoemission and electrical conductivity ranging from highly insulating (dielectric) materials through semiconductors to high-temperature superconductors. The potential fields of application of the materials include electronic, or multiferroic devices, spintronics, photonics and – highly topical at present – energetic applications such as fuel cells and solar cells.

Selected Publications

- S. C. Wimbush, J. H. Durrell, C. F. Tsai, H. Wang, Q. X. Jia, M. G. Blamire and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, Enhanced critical current in YBa₂Cu₃O_7–d thin films through pinning by ferromagnetic YFeO₃ nanoparticles, (2009) to appear.

- S. C. Wimbush, M. C. Li, M. E. Vickers, B. Maiorov, D. M. Feldmann, Q. X. Jia and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, Interfacial strain-induced oxygen disorder as the cause of enhanced critical current density in superconducting thin films, Adv. Funct. Mater. 19 (2009) 835.

- Z. A. C. Schnepp, S. C. Wimbush, S. Mann and S. R. Hall, Structural evolution of superconductor nanowires in biopolymer gels, Adv. Mater. 20 (2008) 1782.

- E. Culverwell, S. C. Wimbush and S. R. Hall, Biotemplated synthesis of an ordered macroporous superconductor with high critical current density using a cuttlebone template, Chem. Commun. 9 (2008) 1055.

- S. C. Wimbush, M. Tachiki, E. Takayama-Muromachi and H. Itozaki, Atomic force microscope based lithography of YBa₂Cu₃O_7–d thin films, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 45 (2006) 5742.

- T. Kolodiazhnyi and S. C. Wimbush, Spin singlet small bipolarons in Nb-doped BaTiO₃, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 246404.

- S. C. Wimbush, B. Holzapfel and Ch. Jooss, Observation of dendritic flux instabilities in YNi₂B₂C thin films, J. Appl. Phys. 96 (2004) 3589.

- S. C. Wimbush, K. Häse, L. Schultz and B. Holzapfel, Epitaxial a-axis and c-axis oriented growth of YNi₂B₂C thin films, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 13 (2001) L355.