Question: what do you actually do?

Adam Berlie answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Yes, good question. I work with different materials trying to solve and understand the underlying properties. Really it’s a question of: how can we make the materials we want, give them the properties we want and understand the underlying chemistry and physics? To do this I use bits of both chemistry and physics, chemical synthesis is obviously important, as is looking at how the atoms are arranged (the crystal structure). Further to this, I also use various techniques to study their physical properties and these include using neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy. I work within a group at a big facility that specialises in using muon spectroscopy and using this to understand how materials behave.

Muons are essentially heavy electrons and in our case we use the positive muon. When these are implanted (put into) samples, they behave like tiny bar magnets. But this phenomena allows us to study a lot more then just magentism. It can be applied to superconductors, semiconductors and for looking at chemical reactions with the muon itself.