Professor Michael Carpenter

My long standing research interests relate to the role of strain and elastic relaxations in minerals and functional materials. These play a fundamental role in determining the nature, mechanisms and thermodynamic character of phase transitions and in controlling the properties of solid solutions. The fundamental principles apply across the solid state sciences, from Earth Sciences to Materials Physics and Engineering.

I welcome opportunities to develop collaborative ventures in aspects of strain and elasticity that arise in Earth Sciences, Solid State Chemistry, Solid State Physics, Materials Science, Engineering or Biomaterials. Anyone who would like to make elasticity measurements in my Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy lab should feel free to contact me at any time. I also welcome enquiries from potential students and post-docs.

Materials of current interest (all in collaborative ventures) include: minerals, relaxor ferroelectrics, ferroelectrics, ferro/antiferromagnetics, multiferroics, metallic glasses, metal-organic frameworks, martensites, Heusler compounds, Ti alloys, unconventional superconductors.

Current funding is for "Magnetoelastic coupling behaviour and multiferroicity of magnetic iron oxide and sulphide minerals" (Leverhulme Trust), and "Ferroelectric, ferroelastic and multiferroic domain walls: a new horizon in nanoscale functional materials" (EPSRC, with JM Gregg, M Alexe, JF Scott, EKH Salje)

Thanks to many collaborators – particularly, Ekhard Salje, Chris Howard, Jim Scott, Tim Darling, Albert Migliori, Richard Harrison, Ruth McKnight, Zhiying Zhang, Jason Schiemer, Don Evans, Wei Li, Oktay Aktas, Catalina Salazar, Sarah Driver and others.

Thanks to funding agencies – particularly, NERC, EPSRC, The Leverhulme Trust