Motivation
The coexistence of competing orders like magnetism and superconductivity (SC) (or charge order and superconductivity) has obtained a lot of interest over the past years. The physical proximity of two such different phases showing competing orders can lead to a virgin territory of unprecedented phenomena that remains to be explored. When two such phases are brought in close contact, each phase loses a bit of its own attribute and gains something extra from the neighboring phase. In general, this effect is termed as proximity effect. For an example, it has been found that in a SC/Ferromagnet(FM) junction, the magnetism of the FM is suppressed, whereas the superconductor can obtain some magnetic moment. In continuation to my previous PhD research on Nd1-x(Ca1-ySry)xMnO3(NCSMO)/YBa2Cu3O7(YBCO) heterostructures, in this project, I propose to study the synthesis and characterization of a main Mn-based high entropy oxides (Mn-HEO): Nd(Co0.2Cr0.2Fe0.2Mn0.2Ni0.2)O3 using solid-state reaction and study their physical properties like resistivity, dielectric and optical properties and magnetism in polycrystalline, single-crystalline and epitaxial thin film form. Finally, we would like to prepare epitaxial (Mn-HEO/YBCO) heterostructures and study their mutual proximity effect. Synchrotron based techniques like X-ray absorption spectroscopy, Resonant x-ray scattering, optical spectroscopy, Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy will be used for this study.