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Research Zernike (ZIAM) Solid State Materials for Electronics Nanostructures of Functional Oxides

Nanostructures of Functional Oxides

The focus of our research is on ferroic materials (ferroelectrics, ferromagnets and multiferroics), as well as nanostructures based on ferroic patterns or other type of self-assembled patterns, such as nanodomains. Our aim is to gain access to the materials nanoscale by manipulating the growth of thin film oxides at atomic level. By growing structures atomic-layer by atomic-layer and tuning the strain, one can create novel materials with compositions and symmetries deliberately tailored for specific applications. This control also allow us to investigate the properties of domain walls and their distinct functionality (conductivity, polarity, magnetism).
Although our research is fundamental in nature, we are inspired by two main application areas that we believe will enable the next technological revolution: Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting for low power electronics and Novel materials for Neuromorphic Computing.

News

June 2017

Our work within Nanolab NL featured in Youtube films

NanoLabNL: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen - Beatriz Noheda

NanoLabNL: Atomic Scale Control to Enhance Nanotechnology

May 2017

Our collaboration with the neighbor town hall Zuidhorn appears in the news

July 2016

NWO-Veni grant for Dr. Saeedeh Farokhipoor

Perspective article on ferroelectric chalcogenides by B. Noheda and B.J. Kooi appears in Science

May 2016

TOP-PUNT grant of 1.7 M€ for Beatriz Noheda

January 2016

Cover of January 2016 issue of Advanced Electronic Materials features our paper Arnoud Everhardt et al. " Ferroelectric domain structures in low-strain BaTiO3 "

December 2015

Two papers on Jeroen Heuver’s thin films of multiferroic spinel CoCr2O4 are published in Physical Review B:

J.A. Heuver et al. (Strain-induced magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial thin films of the spinel CoCr2O4 ) and A. Aqeel et al. (Spin-Hall magnetoresistance and spin Seebeck effect in spin-spiral and paramagnetic phases of multiferroic films)

November 2015

Paper by Arnoud Everhardt et al. " Ferroelectric domain structures in low-strain BaTiO3 " published online in Advanced Electronic Materials.

February 2015

Oleskiy Nesterov successfully defends his thesis "Control of Periodic Ferroelastic Domains in Ferroelectric Pb1-xSrxTiO3 thin films for nanoscale memory devices"

November 2014

Paper by Saeedeh Farokhipoor, Cesat Magén et al. " published in Nature: DOI: 10.1038/nature13918

June 2014

Paper accepted in Nature Communications: The paper on "Super switching and control of in-plane ferroelectric nanodomains in strained thin films" by Sylvia Matzen, Oleksiy Nesterov, Gijsbert Rispens, Jeroen Heuver, Mike Biegalski, Hans Christen, and Beatriz Noheda to appear in July in Nature Communications .

December 2012

Beatriz Noheda is appointed member of the Editorial board of Applied Physics/Journal of Applied Physics for the next 3 years.

December 2011

Beatriz Noheda has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. For more information see RUG, Zernike Institute or FOM press releases.

October 2011

Paper on "Flexoelectric rotation of polarization in ferroelectric thin films" by Gustau Catalan, Ard Vlooswijk, Gijsbert Rispens and Beatriz Noheda (SSME group) and collaborators at Twente, Barcelona and Toulouse, has been published in Nature Materials (Advanced online publication in October 16th). See also press release.

August 2011

Paper on "Conduction at 71° domain walls in BiFeO3 thin films" by Saeedeh Farokhipoor and Beatriz Noheda has been accepted in Phys. Rev. Letts.

June 2011

The University of Groningen is ranked 4th in terms of citations and impact on Materials Science according to Thomson Reuters (June 2011). See ranking.