Dr Nicola A Morley

MPhys, PhD, MInstP
Lecturer in Material Physics

Address:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD

Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 5935
Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 5943

Email: n.a.morley@sheffield.ac.uk

Nicola Morley was appointed as Lecturer to the department in May 2005. Her research is based in the Sheffield Centre of Advanced Magnetic Materials and Devices (SCAMMD). Previously, she was a postdoctoral research assistant in the SCAMMD group at the University of Sheffield (2003 – 2005), which was originally based in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, but moved in July 2004 to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Nicola was awarded her PhD from the University of Durham in 2003, with a thesis entitled "Superconducting Pb_1-xEu_xMo₆S₈ measured between 300 mK and T_c in high magnetic fields, using a new field-gradient torque magnetometer." She graduated from the University of Oxford in 1999, with a MPhys in Physics.

Research interests

Her research centres on the understanding and development of ultrathin magnetic films to be used in magnetic devices and sensors. The main research areas are:

• Novel spintronic Devices.
• Smart Magnetic Materials
• Fabrication and Characterisation of monolayer and multilayer magnetic films.
• The relationship between the magnetostriction, magnetisation and microstructure of Fe-based alloy films.

Key projects

• The fabrication of the new magnetic alloy Fe-Ga into thin polycrystalline and amorphous films.
• Controlling the microstructure of highly magnetostrictive magnetic films (FeCo, FeGa, FeAl).
• • Fabrication and characterisation of organic spin-valves.
• Measurements of the spin polarised currents in spin-valves using muon and neutron spectroscopy.

Professional activities and recognition

• Member of the UK Magnetics Society committee.
• Member of the Institute of Physics.
• Member of the IEEE.
• Member of the WUN spintronics committee.

Key publications

• N. A. Morley, A. Javed, and M. R. J. Gibbs, ‘Structural and magnetic properties of thin Fe-Ga films’, Journal of Applied Physics, 2009, 105, 07A912.
• D. Dhandapani, A. Rao, N. A. Morley, A. Das, M. Grell, and M. R. J. Gibbs, ‘Effect of polymer processing on spin MR in organic structures’, Journal of Applied Physics, 2009, 105, 07C702.
• A. J. Drew, J. Hoppler, L. Schultz, F. L. Pratt, P. Desai, P. Shakya, T. Kreouzis, W. P. Gillin, A. Suter, N. A. Morley, V. Malik-Kumar, H. Bouyanfif, K. W. Kim, A. Dubroka, F. Bourqui, C. Bernhard, R. Scheuermann, T. Prokscha, G. J. Nieuwenhuys, and E. Morenzoni, ‘Direct measurement of the spin polarization of injected electrons into the spacer layer of an organic spin valve’, Nature Materials, 2008, 8, 109 - 114.
• N. A. Morley, S.-L. Yeh, S. Rigby, A. Javed, and M. R. J. Gibbs, ‘Development of a co-sputter-evaporation chamber for Fe-Ga films’, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, 2008, 20, 581 - 586.
• P. Desai, P. Shakya, T. Kreouzis, W. P. Gillin, N. A. Morley and M. R. J. Gibbs, 'Magnetoresistance and efficiency measurements of Alq3 based OLEDs', Physical Review B, 2007, 75, 094423.
• N. A. Morley, A. Rao, D. Dhandapani, M. R. J. Gibbs, M. Grell and T. Richardson, 'Room temperature organic spintronics', submitted to Journal of Applied Physics, 2007.
• N. A. Morley, M. R. J. Gibbs, E. Ahmad, I. G. Will and Y. B. Xu, 'Anisotropies and Magnetostriction Constants of epitaxial Co films on GaAs(100) substrates', Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 2006, 18, 8781.
• N. A. Morley, M. R. J. Gibbs, E. Ahmad, I. G. Will and Y. B. Xu, 'In-plane anisotropy and magnetostriction of thin Fe films on GaInAs substrate with Cr overlayers', Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 2005, 17, 46, 7253-7262.
• N. A. Morley, M. R. J. Gibbs, E. Ahmad, I. Will and Y. B. Xu, 'MOKE hysteresis loop method of determining the anisotropy constants of ferromagnetic thin films: Fe on GaAs(1 0 0) with overlayers of Au and Cr', Journal of magnetism and magnetic materials, 2006, 300, 436-444.
• N. A. Morley, M. R. J. Gibbs, R. Zuberek and K. Fronc, 'Orientation and layer thickness dependence on the longitudinal and transverse magnetisation of multilayer Fe/Si and Fe/Ge films', Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 2004, 16, 23, 4121-4129.

Research group

Mr Simon Rigby (PhD student)
Mr Athar Javed (PhD student)
Mr Hadi AlQahtani (PhD student)

Research centre

Sheffield Centre for Advanced Magnetic Materials and Devices