Welcome to our web page, where you may learn about who we are and what we do as part of the Condensed Matter Physics Group of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University and of the Division of Material Science and Engineering at Ames National Laboratory (a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility). Our group of faculty, staff, post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students is mostly dedicated to the design, discovery, growth, characterization and tuning of novel electronic and magnetic compounds - often in single crystal form - and the study of their interesting physical properties.

Physics Today - October 1998
"New Magnetic Superconductors: A Toy Box for Solid-State Physicists"
(Physics Today - October 1998 Japanese)

Nature Physics - 2008
"Fishing the Fermi Sea"

Reports on Progress in Physics - 2020
"New Materials Physics"

Physics World - January 2002
"Magnesium Diboride: one year on"

Nature Physics - 2009
"A Cook's Tale "

Physics Today - March 2003
"Magnesium Diboride: Better Late than Never"
(Physics Today - March 2003 Japanese)

APL Materials - 2015
"The Hash House Harriers and the Winding Path to Materials Discovery"

Scientific American - April 2005
"Low Temperature Superconductivity Is Warming Up"
(Scientific American German) (Scientific American Chinese) (Scientific American Spanish) (Scientific American Japanese) (Scientific American Italian) (Scientific American Russian) (Scientific American Korean) (Scientific American Arabic)

Reports on Progress in Physics - 2016
"Preserved Entropy and Fragile Magnetism"

1. Superconductivity and Novel Superconducting Materials
   Discovery, synthesis, and characterization of superconductors, including conventional, unconventional, and correlated superconducting systems.
2. Itinerant and Local-Moment Magnetism
   Itinerant magnetic systems as well as local-moment ferromagnets, antiferromagnets, spin glasses, and metamagnetic materials.
3. Quantum Phase Transitions and Tunable Quantum Materials
   Quantum phase transitions and quantum critical points driven by magnetic field (H), pressure (P), chemical substitution (x), strain, and other external perturbations.
4. Topological, Low-Dimensional, and Aperiodic Materials
   Topological materials, van der Waals and low-dimensional systems, quasicrystals and related complex intermetallic phases.
5. Single-Crystal Growth and Materials Discovery
   Solution growth of high-quality single crystals, development of new growth techniques, and exploratory synthesis of compounds with novel or unusual ground states.
6. High-Pressure/High-Temperature Synthesis
   Discovery and stabilization of new materials using two complementary HP/HT approaches: multi-anvil synthesis and laser heated diamond anvil cell synthesis, providing access to phases and structures that cannot be obtained under ambient-pressure growth conditions.

7. Measurements under Extreme Conditions
   Electrical transport, magnetization, and other thermodynamic measurements under pressure and magnetic field, with emphasis on mapping phase diagrams and identifying pressure-induced new ground states, phase transitions and quantum critical behavior.

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1. PSQM-2025 International Workshop: Three days Workshop "Experimental Advances in the Use of Pressure and Strain to Probe and Control Quantum Matter" was held in Ames, May 21-23 2025.
2. PSQM-2022 International Workshop: Three days Workshop "Experimental Advances in the Use of Pressure and Strain to Probe and Control Quantum Matter" was held in Ames, May 11-13 2022.
3. 25th Anniversary Workshop: Three days Workshop "Synthesis and Exotic Physics of Novel Quantum Materials" was held in Ames, August 1-3 2018. Workshop photo

1. Gourmet Cooking: This a natural extension of the group's interest in synthesis and studies of complex materials. Click here to see some of our favorite recipes (pdf).
2. Suggested Reading: Subjective, personal and constantly changing "must-read" list (pdf) compiled by the members of the group (limited to the English language publications).
3. Goodies: Five Motivations (pdf) ; Periodic Table (pdf) ; "Rhinestone Cowboys" by Diana Lutz (pdf)
4. Joe Thompson's Fest: Photos
5. Growth Demo by Prof. Paul C. Canfield
6. CMP as seen by Prof. Paul C. Canfield. (So-Close Project)
7. CMP: So Close and Such a Stranger English Español
8. Paul Canfield reads his limericks.
9. High Impact Factor Syndrome. SF Declaration on Research Assessment.
10. Phys 590B Special Topics Condensed Matter Physics - Experimental Methods: Click here for syllabus and lecture presentations
11. Prof. Gordie Miller's lecture on COHP