MAMA Unlocking research potential for multifunctional advanced materials and nanoscale phenomena

Prof. Rodolfo Miranda & Dr. Paolo Perna

Funding : FP7-REGPOT-2010-1 nº 264098

Duration: 2010 - 2014

60 months

Multifunctional materials are defined as those materials that perform specific functions other than possessing a load bearing capacity. Examples include semiconductors, magnetic materials, piezoelectric and ionic conductors. In this context, transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been attracting an ever-increasing interest, due to the wide variety of physical properties that they exhibit, including unconventional superconductivity, piezo- and ferroelectricity, colossal magneto-resistance, multi-ferroicity and a number of exotic magnetic, charge and orbital orderings. Still, the analysis and modelling of hybrid heterostructures, where layers of functional organic materials represent an ultimate and even more ambitious challenge. Such features are believed to open the route to the fabrication of device prototypes where multiple functionalities of TMOs and functional organic layers are nanointegrated on the same chip. The range of application sectors is correspondingly large, including: information and communications technology, energy generation, storage and transport. Within the project the CNR-SPIN Campania aims at unlocking its research potential to face the scientific challenge behind

the complexity of multifunctional advanced materials and nano-scale phenomena. By exploiting the available partnerships expertises and experimental endowment, complemented by the new resources provided within the project, the CNR-SPIN Campania aims at achieving the highest level of competitiveness about issues of i) materials fabrication, by addressing the growth of very high quality samples in the different shapes of epitaxial thin films and single crystals, also integrated together in complex hetero-structures and; ii) advanced material characterizations, both based on matter-light interaction, on scanning probe techniques and on electron-magnetic transport, iii) theoretical modelling and advanced multi-scale computation to analyze and get insight into different physical properties of innovative materials.