Advanced Materials

Advanced Materials Figure 1
Figure 1: Conductance (color scale on the top) vs bias voltage (x-axis) and distance (y-axis) demonstrating lateral quantization of collective electronic states at the surface of the heavy fermion superconductor URu2Si2. Image taken at 100 mK. From Nature 616, 465 (2023).

Today’s devices and appliances require materials with ever increasing capabilities. Superconductors deliver considerable improvements in energy storage and transport and are fundamental in medicine for magnetic resonance imaging. Graphene and graphene-based materials promise to improve functionalities of many devices. New molecular systems are excellent sieves and are used in gas storage or photovoltaics.

IFIMAC works on the fundamental properties of materials with the aim to set the pace for future transformational changes in technology. For this, we carry an extensive research program in the synthesis, characterization, and modeling of new materials (Figure 1). We develop state-of-the-art instrumentation and techniques which we offer to other research groups through spin-offs or scientific collaborations.

Among them are computational techniques as well as atomic manipulation and surface characterization techniques (Figure 2).

Advanced Materials Figure 2
Figure 2: Hexagonal pore (A) and tetrahedral cavity (B) in the luminescent metal organic framework MOF-808, an emergent class of optical sensors. We show an unsaturated Zr6O8 cluster in C. Blue is Zr, grey is C and red is O, hydrogen is removed for clarity. From Nature Communications 14, 2506 (2023).

IFIMAC takes full advantages of the possibilities offered by the UAM, leveraging the use of fabrication, nanofabrication (Figure 3) and characterization facilities of the Campus. The Helium liquefaction unit of the UAM is unique nation-wide and recovers and liquefies Helium for science, often also delivering industry. The fabrication facilities include state-of-the-art machines, with a new metal 3D printer and a development center for new instrumentation.

Advanced Materials Figure 3
Figure 3: Device made of superconducting leads and a semiconducting nanowire. An etched part in the middle of the nanowire allows applying a gate. Heat flow (red lines) leads to a new characterization tool, Joule spectroscopy. From Nature Communications 14, 2873 (2023).

IFIMAC allows researchers to measure and characterize materials from atomic scale to large sizes, from low to high frequencies, at temperatures down to 7 mK and magnetic fields up to 22 T. IFIMAC includes the only laboratory contributing to the access system of a large-scale European infrastructure (the European high magnetic field laboratory), and collaborates very actively in synchrotron, neutron scattering and free electron laser facilities. Advanced calculations, from ab-initio to modeling, leverage experimental efforts in instrumentation to creating top level science. Practically any new idea in materials synthesis can be addressed at IFIMAC.

Advanced Materials Figure 4
Figure 4: Friedel oscillations from H atoms in graphene. Additional wavefronts appearing due to dislocations are shown in red. From Nature, 574, 219 (2019).

IFIMAC studies all sorts of topical quantum materials, obtaining advances in magnetism, superconductivity, topological properties of materials, interfaces, optical properties (Figure 4), electronics and spintronics, surface physics, molecular systems, graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Regarding the material properties under study at IFIMAC,several groups are very active in the research on magnetism, superconductivity, spintronics and vortex physics.