Integrated Calendar

The rational design of nanoparticles has been increasingly important for the successful applications in the detection of biological targets and also for the development of catalysis in energy harvesting and storage. Simultaneous prerequisite is the better understanding of size, composition and shape dependent nanoscaling-laws of nanoparticles.
In the first part, I will discuss about chemical design magnetic nanoparticles as the ultra-sensitive MRI probes (with more than 10 times higher sensitivity than conventional ones) and multi-modal nanoparticles for highly accurate and false-free capabilities in the monitoring of biological species and drug delivery. In the latter part of my talk, “laterally confined 2-dimensional” nanoparticles will be introduced to demonstrate their capabilities as excellent host materials for energy conversion and storage.

Ferroelectrics are functional materials with strongly interacting electrons and ions, and with applications ranging from medical imaging systems to electro-mechanical sensors, non-volatile memory devices and cellular antennae [1, 2]. Being a collective phenomenon, the origin of ferroelectricity is hidden at the nanoscale, where the border between one and a few domains is. In addition, the nanometer scale behaviour of ferroelectrics encompasses also a great technological potential because at this scale, "the material is the machine" [3]. We developed a novel method for imaging domain statics and dynamics with an improvement in resolution of one order of magnitude with respect to conventional methods (~1 nm) [4]. This enabled the discovery and understanding of exciting phenomena that act together as a smart multiscale behaviour of ferroelectricity, in which the electro-mechanical properties are strongly coupled. The existence of such natural multiscale mechanism lays the ground for accomplishing Feynman’s nanotechnology vision.
In the talk, some of these phenomena will be surveyed. These include some fascinating domain structures at different length scales [5-9]. Moreover, it will be presented how it is possible to control the crystallographic characteristics of ionic crystal ferroelectrics by the mean of electric field at the nanometer regime [10]. Lastly, it will be demonstrated how these phenomena qualify ferroelectrics for the next generation high-density non-volatile memory devices and for novel wireless telecommunication technologies.