Jon Goff has extensive experience in the study of strongly correlated systems using neutron scattering and synchrotron x-ray techniques. He runs the Materials Discovery Laboratory at Royal Holloway, which is equipped for single-crystal growth and sample characterisation, and he performs experiments at ISIS, Diamond, the Institut Laue-Langevin, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin.  

His work on thermoelectric oxides has focused on sodium ordering and the control of electrons in sodium cobaltate, and he has discovered ring exchange in high-temperature superconductors. His work on thin films includes the first observation of the spin-density wave responsible for the propagation of magnetic order in multilayers using resonant x-ray scattering, and the observation of perpendicular antiferromagnetic order in exchange-biased multilayers using neutron diffraction. He determined the defect superstructures in the fuel-cell material yttria-stabilised zirconia.

Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics (PH2610)

The first section of the course completes the classical treatment of thermal physics started in the first year course, Classical Matter. The power of this treatment is its generality and the fact that it does not rely on microscopic models. In the second section of the course, a microscopic understanding of thermal physics is developed, building on the kinetic theory treatment of a classical gas introduced in Classical Matter, by the introduction of elementary quantum mechanics. Familiar results will be obtained, for example the thermodynamic properties of an ideal gas will be derived from the solutions of Schrödinger’s equation for particles in a box, and exotic new phenomena are encountered, such as negative temperature, superfluidity and superconductivity. This treatment links in an elegant manner the quantum world with everyday observables of systems containing large numbers of particles.