Dr Otto Mustonen PhD, MSc.

Dr Otto Mustonen

School of Chemistry
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow

Contact details

Email
o.mustonen@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@OHJMustonen
View my research portal
Address
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Otto Mustonen is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the School of Chemistry.

Otto’s research focuses on quantum materials. These materials have exotic properties arising from the peculiarities of quantum mechanics, and could be used as the building blocks of next-generation quantum computers. In his fellowship, Otto aims to develop a new approach to designing quantum materials based on fine control of their chemical composition.

Otto uses muon spectroscopy and neutron scattering to characterise quantum materials in collaboration with central facilities such as the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and Institut Laue-Langevin.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Chemistry, Aalto University, 2018
  • Teacher’s pedagogical qualification, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, 2017
  • MSc. in Chemistry, Aalto University, 2013

Biography

Otto studied at Aalto University, Finland, under the supervision of Prof. Maarit Karppinen. For his PhD in inorganic materials chemistry, Otto investigated half-metallicity and quantum magnetism in strongly correlated oxides. He discovered the first quantum spin liquid candidate on the square lattice 30 years after it was first predicted by Nobel Laureate Philip W. Anderson.

After completing his PhD in 2018, Otto moved to the UK to join Dr Eddie Cussen’s group at the University of Sheffield. Otto was a PDRA in the Leverhulme Trust funded New Magnetic Materials Discovery project, where he investigated novel quantum states in oxides using muon and neutron techniques. Otto led the close collaboration with ISIS Neutron and Muon Source helping secure over 30 days of beamtime at central facilities.

Otto joined the School of Chemistry in 2021 as a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow.

Research

  • Design, synthesis and characterisation of inorganic quantum materials
  • Frustrated and quantum magnetism in oxides
  • Tuning magnetic interactions with chemical dopants
  • Quantum criticality in magnetic materials
  • Muon spectroscopy, neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering

Other activities

  • Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
  • Member of the American Physical Society

Publications

  • O. H. J. Mustonen, C. E. Pughe, H. C. Walker, H. M. Mutch, G. B. G. Stenning, F. C. Coomer, and E. J. Cussen (2020), Diamagnetic d-orbitals Drive Magnetic Structure Selection in the Double Perovskite Ba2MnTeO6, Chemistry of Materials 32: 7070–7079.
  • V. M. Katukuri, P. Babkevich, O. Mustonen, H. C. Walker, B. Fåk, S. Vasala, M. Karppinen, H. M. Rønnow, and O. V. Yazyev (2020), Exchange Interactions Mediated by Non-Magnetic Cations in Double Perovskites, Physical Review Letters 124: 077202.
  • O. Mustonen, S. Vasala, H. Mutch, C.I. Thomas, G.B.G. Stenning, E. Baggio-Saitovitch, E.J. Cussen, and M. Karppinen (2019), Magnetic interactions in the S = 1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnets Ba2CuTeO6 and Ba2CuWO6: parent phases of a possible spin liquid, Chemical Communications 55: 1132–1135.
  • O. Mustonen, S. Vasala, E. Sadrollahi, K.P. Schmidt, H.C. Walker, I. Terasaki, F.J. Litterst, E. Baggio-Saitovitch, and M. Karppinen (2018), Suppression of magnetic order in a spin-1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnet perovskite by d10-d0 cation mixing, Nature Communications 9: 1085.
  • O. Mustonen, S. Vasala, K.P. Schmidt, E. Sadrollahi, H.C. Walker, I. Terasaki, F.J. Litterst, E. Baggio-Saitovitch, and M. Karppinen (2018), Tuning the S = 1/2 square-lattice antiferromagnet Sr2Cu(Te1-xWx)O6 from Néel order to quantum disorder to columnar order, Physical Review B 98: 064411.

View all publications in research portal