Professor of Physics

Phone: (517) 884-5652
Fax: (517) 353-4500
Address: 4222 Biomedical & Physical Sciences Bldg., MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824-2320
e-mail:pratt@pa.msu.edu

Fellowships and Honors

• U.K. Science and Engineering Research Council Senior Visiting Fellowships:
  • April 1993 - August 1993
  • June 1980 - September 1980
  • August 1978 - August 1979
• Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1993

Research Interests

• Spin Engineering: Design and Fabrication of Novel Magnetic Multilayers with Perpendicular Current Flow
• Mesoscopic Perpendicular-Current Studies
• Ultralow Temperature Physics

Selected Publications

• Detecting domain wall trapping and motion at a constriction in narrow ferromagnetic wires using perpendicular-current giant magnetoresistance, A.J. Zambano and W.P. Pratt Jr., Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 1562 (2004).

• Controlled Normal and Inverse Magnetoresistance and Current-Driven Magnetization Switching in Magnetic Nanopillars, M. AlHajDarwish, H. Kurt, S. Urazhdin, A. Fert, R. Loloee, W.P. Pratt Jr., and J. Bass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 157203 (2004).

• Changes in magnetic scattering anisotropy at a ferromagnetic/superconducting interface, K. Eid, H. Kurt, W.P.Pratt Jr., and J. Bass, Rev. B Rapid Comm. 70, 100411 (2004).

• Switching current versus magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayer nanopillars, S. Urazhdin, N. O. Birge, W. P. Pratt, Jr. and J. Bass, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 1516 (2004)

• Current-Driven Magnetic Excitations in Permalloy-Based Multilayer Nanopillars, S. Urazhdin, N.O. Birge, W.P. Pratt Jr., and J. Bass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 146803 (2003).

• Direct measurement of quasiparticle evanescent waves in a dirty superconductor, J.Y. Gu, A. Caballero, R.D. Slater, R. Loloee and W.P. Pratt, Jr., Phys. Rev. B Rapid Comm. 66, 140507 (2002).