SCHILLING'S   HIGH-PRESSURE   GROUP   PAGE


Research Activities
(Most of the graduate students and the research described on this webpage received support from the National Science Foundation)
Periodic Table of Superconductivity gives current values of superconducting transition temperature Tc for both the 30 ambient-pressure superconductors (yellow) and the 23 high-pressure superconductors (light green). See legend in figure for detailed information. (last updated June 30, 2009)
Group Photo from the Gordon Conference on Research at High Pressure chaired by J.S. Schilling (June 21 - 26, 1998 in Meriden, New Hampshire)
Kamerlingh Onnes and Johannes Sizoo carried out the first high-pressure studies on superconductors (Sn and In) in 1925. Here is a copy of their memorable publication in Phys. Lab. Univ. Leiden, No. 180b (1925).
List of publications since 1990
Read our most recent publications (PDF files)

James, Narelle, and Wenli begin a Mbar experiment with the diamond-anvil cell!

James Hamlin returns to St. Louis June 1-14, 2009 to carry out high-pressure experiments with Narelle Hillier (center) and Wenli Bi (right).
 

Discussing interesting data in July 2008

From left to right:  Katsuya Shimizu and Takahiro Matsuoka from Osaka University in Japan, Mathiewos Debessai (middle).
 

James reaches 174 GPa in October 2007!

Here's what James' Lu sample (blue oval) looked like at 174 GPa
(diamond anvil has 7 degree bevel from 350 to 180 microns diameter. The dark ring in the middle marks where the
concave culet edges are nearly touching, preventing further buildup of pressure on the sample).


 
 


The members of Schilling's group introduce themselves

Group in July 2008

From left to right:  Takahiro Matsuoka (visiting from Japan), Narelle Hillier, Jim Schilling, Wenli Bi, Hunter Banks, and Mathiewos Debessai.
 

Group in Spring 2005

From left to right:  James Hamlin, Vladimir Tissen (visiting from Russia), Jim Schilling, Takahiro Tomita, Forrest Rogers-Marcovitz, and Mathiewos Debessai.
 


Group at End of Summer 2002

Group at Beginning of Summer 1999

Group at End of Summer 1995

GRC Soccer Match, June 29, 2006 (photo 1) (players include: Koen De Hantsetters, Jim Schilling, Shanti Deemyad, Mikhail Eremets

(photo 2) Second from left is Mathew Debessai who scored 5 of the 6 goals in a 6:1 rout of "Kbars" over "Mbars".

Sascha, Jim, and Claus meet in Berlin (June 5, 2006)
Takahiro Tomita's a Doctor! Congratulations (November 15, 2005)

Three  Photos  from  January 2003 and one from April 2003

  • Shanti at her diamond-anvil pressure rig after her record setting pressure run to 650 kbar.  Lithium is superconducting!
  • Takahiro taking data using the He-gas apparatus on Boyd Veal's YBCO bicrystals.
  • James preparing a sample in the Argon glovebox.
  • Former student Anne-Katrin Klehe with husband Scott and daughter Kaethe-Marie during their visit in April.

    • Two  Photos  from  Summer  2002
     
     

    Join us at the beer garden in the Ostpark in Munich!


    Andreas Schlögl, Geziena van den Berg, Jim Schilling, Harald Gossner, Horst Zimmermann on July 12, 2002.
    Here are two pictures taken of Claus Allgeier, Horst Zimmermann, Andreas Schlögl, and Jim Schilling about 10 years earlier
    on an attempt to climb the "Pyramidenspitze" near Kufstein.  Unfortunately, a storm came up before we made it to the top.


    Professor S. Methfessel in discussions with his former postdoc Jim Schilling.
    The occasion was the celebration on July 19, 2002 of Methfessel's 80th birthday.

    Other Former Students and Postdoctoral Associates

  • Claus Allgeier and family in January 2002, approximately 6 months after moving from Bergisch-Gladbach to Berlin.  Claus works for the company Osram and is responsible worldwide for the development of high-pressure discharge light sources.  Under the photo of his family Claus describes (in German) his new responsibilities at work.  Claus and family recently moved to Berlin to take on new responsibilities with Osram.
  • Jost Diederichs at work in early 1995 (received Ph.D. Degree in June 1996 from Washington University; currently at Quantum Design, San Diego, California).  Here are Jost, Barbara, and daughter Fabiola at their home in California in 1998.  Here is Jost after receiving an award in Chicago in December 1998 for his contributions to Quantum Design technology. On October 2, 2000 Jost returned to give a seminar on Novel Uses of Superparamagnetic Particles in Biomedical Devices.
  • Gerhard Fasol ("Diplom" (Masters) Degree in March 1978 from the University of Bochum followed by Doctorate Degree in 1981 from the Cavendish Lab in Cambridge, England).  Gerhard is now President of the company Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
  • Stefan Klotz (received Doctorate Degree in July 1992 from the University of Munich; currently at Physique des Milieux Condenses, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. Stefan returned on August 14, 2000 to give a seminar on Neutron Scattering at High Pressures.  Following the death of Jean Michel Besson in february 2001, Stefan took over the Chief  Editorship of the journal High Pressure Research.
  • John Neumeier joined my group at the University of Munich in 1990 as a Postdoctoral Associate, leading this group for three years after I joined the faculty at Washington University.  John is currently Assistant Professor at the Florida Atlantic University. On April 17, 2000 John visited our department and gave a seminar on "The Magnetic Polaron as Revealed in Studies of Manganese Oxide".  In Fall 2002 John moved with his family to Bozeman, Montana where he accepted a tenured Professorship at Montana State University.
  • Frank Pontkees received his "Diplom" (Masters) Degree in July 1985 from the University of Bochum. Frank is now an internal consultant for business process reengineering within the organizational development team of Thyssen/Krupp in Duesseldorf, Germany. He is married and father of a daugher (1991) and a son (1995).

    • Old-Timer Fest in Garching (July 23, 1998)

  • Andres' 1926 Lancia Lambda
  • Andres in voller Fahrt
  • Man trifft sich wieder!
  • Bier gibt's genug!
  • Ralf Sieburger, Gezina van den Berg, Christoph und Katja Lettau
  • Claus Allgeier mit seinem geliebten Faraday-Magnetometer
  • John Neumeier und Ralf Sieburger mit Sohn im alten Labor

    •  

     

    Recent Visitors to St. Louis

  • In December 1998 Dr. Jinhua Ye from the National Research Institute for Metals (NRIM) in Tsukuba, Japan visited us for three weeks to carry out some high-pressure studies on the Pr-123 high-temperature superconductor. In this photo you see James Schilling, Jinhua Ye and Sascha Sadewasser standing at the diamond-anvil-cell apparatus in our lab.
  • In March 1999 Dr. Christoph Gross from the Crystal- and Materials-Development Laboratory of the University of Frankfurt, Germany, visited us for three weeks to explore the possibility for future collaborative high-pressure synthesis and characterization experiments.
  • In Summer 1999 and 2000 former student Craig Looney, who is currently Assistant Professor at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachussetts, returned for several weeks to carry out a series of high-pressure studies on high-Tc superconductors using both the diamond-anvil and He-gas pressure systems. He also spent much time bringing new students up to speed in the lab.
  • In October-December 2000 and October-November 1999 Dr. Vladimir Tissen, a Senior Research Associate at the ISSP of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka, came to St. Louis for extended periods to carry out high-pressure studies on high-Tc superconductors using our diamond-anvil cell. Here's a photo. Dr. Tissen also visited us for one month in 1997 (see list of publications). Here are two photos photo1 and photo2 of Vladimir Tissen, Shanti Deemyad, and Takahiro Tomita in December 2000 in front of the Physics buildings. Takahiro has a Master's Degree from the University of Tokyo and joined Schilling's group in October 2000.
  • In May 1999 Professor John Mydosh (Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium in Leiden, The Netherlands) paid us a visit. Here is a photo.
  • In Spring 2000 Dr. William Spees, a Research Associate at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, carried out magnetization studies on blood samples using our Quantum Design SQUID magnetometer. Dr. Spees is interested in determining how the magnetism of hemoglobin changes with the oxygen content.
  • In November 2002 Ms. Dinah Parker, a doctoral student in Professor Steven Bramwell's Chemistry group at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, carried out high-pressure ac susceptibility studies together with Takahiro Tomita on samples from the compound series Cu1-xZnxCr2Se4 which exhibits a sharp ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic transition for Zn concentrations near x = 0.9.
  • In April 2003 former student Anne-Katrin Klehe, her husband Scott White, and charming daughter Kaethe-Marie(family photo) were in St. Louis for almost three weeks.  Anne-Katrin gave a seminar on April 14, 2003 and carried out research on organic superconductors on the He-gas apparatus together with student Takahiro Tomita.  Vladimir Tissen visited us again for the entire month of April.  He assisted student Shanti Deemyad in research on alkali metal systems using our diamond-anvil cell.
  • In April/May 2005 Dr. Vladimir Tissen visited us again. He suggested that James Hamlin squeeze Yttrium metal to as high a pressure as possible. This ultimately led to an experiment with beveled diamond anvils where Y's superconducting transition temperature reached the record value of 20 K at 1.15 Mbar preprint.
  • In January/March 2007 Takahiro Matsuoka spent three months in our group carrying out electrical resistivity measurements to nearly 1 Mbar pressure on several different systems of interest. The electrical resistivity in a diamond-anvil cell is a very difficult technique which Takahiro was kind enough to teach us during his stay. Takahiro is currently a graduate student in Professor Katsuya Shimizu's group in the Center for Quantum Science and Technology under Extreme Conditions at Osaka University in Japan. Here is a photo of Takahiro together with Wenli Bi, James Hamlin, and Mathew Debessai.
  • In June 2009 James Hamlin returned to Washington University for two weeks to carry out high-pressure experiments together with grad students Narelle Hillier and Wenli Bi. After receiving his Ph.D. degree late in 2007, James joined the group of Brian Maple at the University of California, San Diego, one of the preeminent groups in the world in the area of superconductivity. Besides showing Narelle and Wenli the finer points of diamond-anvil cell technology, James made a number of valuable suggestions for how we could further improve the optics in our DAC. Here is a photo of James together with Narelle and Wenli.
  • In September 2009 Dr. Vladimir Tissen returned for one month to search for superconductivity in potassium under pressure. The experiments are still ongoing.

    •  

     
     
     

    Back to the Departmental Page

    Last revised on:  October 14, 2009