webcasts2008 Finalist :: Paul Morrow
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Bio
Photo Paul Morrow
Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
Paul Morrow has come a long way since his days as an elementary student, pulling apart his mother’s cassette player. The talented young physicist has developed two innovations that could revolutionize magnetic data storage and sensing technology. His ambitious work expands upon previous research that won several research teams a Nobel Prize in physics.
First, Morrow developed a unique nanomaterial that has never before been produced. The nanomaterial is an array of nanoscale columns composed of alternating layers of magnetic cobalt and non-magnetic copper. Morrow’s specialized three-dimensional arrangement of the magnetic and non-magnetic layers creates a material that exhibits promising magnetic properties at room temperature. Similar technology is currently in use in hard disk drive read heads around the world, but the magnetic and non-magnetic layers in traditional read heads are only two-dimensional films. Morrow’s new three-dimensional nanostructured material has the potential to vastly expand data storage capability and could help usher in a new era of microelectronics, reducing the size, cost, and power consumption of magneto-electronic devices.
Second, Morrow developed a microscopic technique to measure the minute magnetic properties of his nanocolumns. Prior to his innovation, no such method existed that was fine-tuned enough to sense the magnetic properties of one or even a small number of freestanding nanostructures. Morrow built a specialized scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with no internal magnetic parts. Most STMs in use in labs around the world have magnetic parts that make them impossible for use in detecting the magnetic properties of a given sample. With his modified non-magnetic STM, Morrow was able to use an electromagnet to control the magnetic behavior of his nanocolumns and measure the magnetic properties of a few as 10 nanocolumns at one time. He is currently working to fine-tune the device to detect the properties of just one nanocolumn. His technique could have important implications for the study of other magnetic nanostructures for magnetic sensing applications including the detection of magnetic ink in currency and other secure documents, and even help detect and further understand the minuscule magnetic fields generated by the human body in the heart and brain.
Morrow proudly originates from the city of Spartanburg, S.C. With just a hidden hint of a Southern accent, he will tell you that although he has a passion for physics, he has a true love of knowledge and discovery in general. From physics to philosophy, Morrow is always filling an insatiable urge to know, a passion he acquired from his parents. His father is a retired chemistry professor at Wofford College, the local liberal arts college that Morrow attended for his bachelor’s, and his mother is a master teacher who instructs elementary schoolteachers in improving their teaching methods. Their love of learning and teaching has inspired Morrow to someday become a teacher himself. Currently, Morrow is working toward his doctorate from Rensselaer in physics.
