Elizabeth Arnold

Elizabeth started her PhD in the Senn group in October 2024 after graduating with a first class MPhys Physics degree from Durham University. During her undergraduate degree, she undertook two summer placements with STFC. The first was at Boulby Underground Laboratory investigating cross-calibration samples for germanium detectors and surface alpha counters, and the second at PPD testing properties of silicon sensors for the LHCb. Motivated by an interest in materials characterization developed in these placements, she undertook a final year project investigating magnetic properties of the Ruddlesden-Popper phase Sr3Co2O7 using x-ray circular dichroism. Elizabeth’s doctoral research is funded by the “Warwick Collaborative Fellowship and Warwick industrial Fellowships” and the “ISIS Facility Development Studentships”, and she is joint supervised by Dr Mark Senn and Dr Nick Funnell. Her research focusses on high pressure local structure neutron PDF analysis of functional materials, using and advancing techniques previously developed in the group to correct for pressure transmitting media. She is investigating both oxide and fluoride perovskites, aiming to develop understanding of orbital and chemical order and disorder caused by mechanisms such as the Jahn-Teller effect and octahedral tilting. Materials currently under investigation include KFeF3 and Ce0.5Ba0.5MnO3.