Seminar of Wrocław Division of Polish Physical Society
Microsoft Teams
Uranium intermetallics: when fundamental research meets nuclear applications, and vice-versa
dr Mathieu Pasturel
Université de Rennes, CNRS, w Rennes, Francja
5f elements, and uranium particularly, on the one hand, play a major role in nuclear applications, both for energy production in nuclear power plants and radioisotopes generation for medical imaging/treatments. On the other hand, the features of their 5f orbitals can induce exotic physical behaviours, including strong electronic correlations and unconventional superconductivity.
The development of new manufacturing methods, or the quest for new materials to solve industrial problems can lead to the discovery of new compounds with intriguing properties. This was the case when our investigation of the reactivity between a nuclear fuel candidate, g-U(Nb), with Al-matrix indicate the way to produce single crystals of U6Nb4Al43, which turned out to be a frustrated magnet due to its peculiar U-network forming isolated “U-dimers”.
In this seminar, the focus will be on the link between applied and fundamental research on uranium compounds, mainly on intermetallics that we study since almost 50 years in collaboration with the Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, PAN, in Wrocław. Examples of frustrated magnets and spin-glasses, thanks to different crystallographic networks, will be shown. Some recent spectroscopic investigations of uranium chalcogenides, that have initially been intensively studied in our institutes in the 70’s-80’s, will also be presented.
