Catherine Dubourdieu receives ERC Advanced Grant
Catherine Dubourdieu: The physicist and materials scientist receives the ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros over five years for her project LUCIOLE. © Materials Research Society USA
Prof. Dr. Catherine Dubourdieu heads the Institute “Functional Oxides for Energy-Efficient Information Technology” at HZB and is Professor at the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry division at Freie Universität Berlin. The physicist and materials scientist specialises in nanometre-sized functional oxides and their applications in information technologies. She has now been awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for her research project “LUCIOLE”, which aims at combining ferroelectric polar textures with conventional silicon technologies.
With its ERC Advanced Grant format, the European Research Council enables outstanding scientists to conduct pioneering and groundbreaking high-risk research. An ERC Advanced Grant is considered one of the highest awards for experienced researchers.
The project LUCIOLE focuses on ferroelectric nanometer-size oxides, which can host exotic polar textures such as vortices or skyrmions. With a wealth of potential emergent properties, whirling topological polar nanodomains could lead to novel devices, for example ultra-compact memories that store more than a terabyte per square inch. “We want to pave the way to future low power nanoelectronics based on topological defects” says Catherine Dubourdieu.
Monolithically integrated polar textures on silicon will be created and investigated on a nanoscale with state-of-the-art microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. These engineered polarization patterns will be embedded into ultra-scaled devices to study their manipulation and dynamics under electric field.
"We have known about the phenomenon of ferroelectricity for a good hundred years. But it is only in recent years that exotic polar textures have been unveiled. This opens up exciting possibilities for revolutionary new materials and devices. This is definitely the best time to be at the forefront of this field of research," says Dubourdieu.
LUCIOLE: Layering, Understanding, Controlling and Integrating Ferroelectric Polar Textures on Silicon.
News from the ERC
With ERC Grants, the European Research Council supports outstanding scientists who want to implement risky but potentially groundbreaking research ideas. An ERC Advanced Grant is considered one of the highest awards for experienced researchers.
- Spintronics at BESSY II: Real-time analysis of magnetic bilayer systemsSpintronic devices enable data processing with significantly lower energy consumption. They are based on the interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers. Now, a team from Freie Universität Berlin, HZB and Uppsala University has succeeded in tracking, for each layer separately, how the magnetic order changes after a short laser pulse has excited the system. They were also able to identify the main cause of the loss of antiferromagnetic order in the oxide layer: the excitation is transported from the hot electrons in the ferromagnetic metal to the spins in the antiferromagnet.
- Too old for research at 60? From nuclear physics to papyrus researchA career in science can be personally fulfilling. However, this also means accepting the unpredictable: research topics may no longer receive funding, and laboratories may close. Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke experienced this first-hand when he had to seek new challenges in his early 60s. Today, the 81-year-old is still active in research, using non-destructive measurement methods to examine ancient artefacts of inestimable cultural value. Antonia Rötger spoke with this extraordinary researcher, whose curiosity and drive are truly inspiring.
- Electrocatalysts: New model for charge separation at the solid-liquid interfaceHydrogen is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrality, as both an energy carrier and a reagent for green chemistry. However, large-scale production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the production of many other chemical products, requires significantly cheaper and more efficient catalysts. A precise understanding of the electrochemical processes that take place at the interface between the solid catalyst and the liquid medium is highly useful for developing better electrocatalysts. In the journal Nature Communications, an European team has now presented a powerful model that determines charge separation at the interface, the formation of the electric double layer and local electric potential variations, and the resulting influence on the catalytic activity.