Dr
Helen Brand
(Australian Synchrotron.)
03/02/2016, 09:00
Oral
In July this year, the NASA New Horizons spacecraft completed an historic flyby of the Plutonian system, the first spacecraft to visit Pluto. The long-awaited data from this mission will take months to be returned in full to Earth. However, the wealth of data received so far, although small in volume, is already providing amazing insights into the surface morphology and geochemistry of Pluto...
Prof.
Michael James
(Australian Synchrotron)
03/02/2016, 09:30
When VIP visitors come to the Australian Synchrotron (Commonwealth Ministers & their minders, Directors of national and international laboratories & research institutes; VCs & DVCRs; my Mother-in-Law;…) we like to play a little game to try and impress them and to demonstrate the impact of our efforts. It goes a little like this:
Mike: “Pick a topic, any topic, and I will tell you how we...
Prof.
Andreas Magerl
(University Erlangen-Nürnberg)
03/02/2016, 09:45
Semiconducting nanoparticles (quantum dots) show a wide range of potential applications due to their unique size-dependent physical and chemical properties. A major issue today concerns the make of such particles with a sufficient control of the particle size, shape and polydispersity, which calls for a good understanding of the formation mechanisms involved. We have developed a free liquid...
Eliot Gann
(Australian Synchrotron)
03/02/2016, 10:00
The orientation of molecules within thin films is of critical importance to the emerging field of organic electronics. Particularly in the case of solution processable polymers and small molecules, where alkyl side chains, included for solubility, impede conduction along that molecular direction, understanding and controlling the molecular orientation both at surfaces and in the bulk of thin...
Dr
Dongchen Qi
(Department of Chemistry and Physics, LIMS, La Trobe University)
03/02/2016, 11:00
Organic semiconductors have important applications in organic electronics and other novel hybrid devices. In these devices, the transport of charge carriers across the interfaces between organic molecules and electrodes plays an important role in determining the device performance. Charge transfer dynamics at these interfaces usually occurs at the several femtoseconds timescale which presents...
Dr
Jennifer MacLeod
(QUT)
03/02/2016, 11:30
Conducting polymers are a key component of modern technologies: they are used in batteries and in displays, and they have a promising future in solar conversion and emerging technologies like flexible electronics. The polymer formed from 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, known as poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene or PEDOT, is used in a variety of applications, primarily because of its low bandgap,...
Dr
David Hoxley
(La Trobe University)
03/02/2016, 11:45
The challenge posed by charge accumulation at the interfaces of low dimensional electronic devices has resulted in a wide range of novel architectures as well as potential applications in organic electronics such as organic photovoltaics. These devices include, among others, organic light-emitting diodes and organic thin-film transistors. Within such devices, the use of lithium fluoride (LiF)...
Mr
Masrur Morshed Nahid
(Monash University)
03/02/2016, 12:00
Semiconducting polymers are of interest for a range of applications including organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), polymer solar cells and flexible electronics. When used as the active layer in solution-processed organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) one usually finds that charge carrier mobility increases with increasing molecular weight, due to the ability of longer chains to bridge...
Dr
Alastair Stacey
(Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, The University of Melbourne)
03/02/2016, 14:00
Quantum technologies promise exciting and transformative futures in many areas of human endeavour. An example is the field of bio-sensing, where quantum probes are already being used to answer fundamental questions about living cells. In these applications diamond often takes centre stage, as a material which simultaneously exhibits both bio-friendly and quantum-friendly properties. This...
Ms
Mirijam Zobel
(Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg)
03/02/2016, 14:30
Interfaces are the key to understand manifold chemical and physical processes, for instance catalytic reactions as well as nanoparticle nucleation and growth. Nanoparticle surfaces have a strong tendency to restructure to strained atomic arrangements in order to stabilize themselves at their finite size [1,2]. But also restructuring of the solvent molecules takes place. The presence of...
Mr
Rafael Santos
(Australian Institute of Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong)
03/02/2016, 14:45
Magnesium-based thermoelectric materials (Mg$_2$X, X = Si, Sn, Ge) have received considerable attention due to their availability, low toxicity and reasonably good thermoelectric performance. However, the synthesis of these materials with high purity is challenging due to the volatility and high vapor pressure of magnesium. In the current study, single phase *n*-type Mg$_2$Ge has been...
Dr
Zhigang Chen
(the University of Queensland)
03/02/2016, 15:00
Thermoelectric materials directly convert thermal energy into electrical energy, offering a green and sustainable alternative for the global energy market.[1, 2] So far, extensive investigations have been made to improve the thermoelectric efficiency, which governed by the dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT ( ), where σ is the electrical conductivity, S is the Seebeck coefficient, T is the...
Prof.
Francesca Iacopi
(Griffith University, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre)
04/02/2016, 08:45
Epitaxial graphene grown using solid source carbon from silicon carbide wafers has been for long time the only route to obtain high quality graphene directly grown at the wafer –level, which is crucial to realise the promise of graphene for nanodevices. Nonetheless, the capability of obtaining comparable quality of graphene on silicon as opposed to silicon carbide wafers, would open an immense...
Prof.
Nunzio Motta
(Queensland University of Technology)
04/02/2016, 09:15
By using X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy we have been able to follow the time evolution of graphene layers obtained by annealing 3C SiC(111)/Si(111) crystals at different temperatures. Analysis of the atomic resolution images and of the Carbon signal provides a clear picture of the graphene formation. We have been able to visualise by STM the first steps of...
Mr
Hud Wahab
(UNSW Canberra)
04/02/2016, 09:30
Technology development and device-design based upon graphene materials require reliable techniques for mass production that are time-robust and reproducible. CVD-synthesis is expected to be the prime candidate for such up-scaling. Copper is a preferred substrate for CVD. Details of the graphene-copper substrate interactions in regard to mechanical stability and electronic band structure are...
Ms
Sima Kashi
(School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University)
04/02/2016, 09:45
With excellent characteristics such as high mechanical properties and electrical conductivity, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) can be used for reinforcing polymers and developing novel materials. In the current study, different concentrations of GNPs (0-15 wt%) were embedded into poly lactide and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) which are among the leading biodegradable polymers....
Prof.
Michael Cortie
(University of Technology Sydney)
04/02/2016, 10:00
Oral
Under specific conditions incoming light can excite a wavelike oscillatory resonance in the free electrons of a conducting material. When this oscillation propagates along a surface it is usually termed a surface plasmon polariton; when confined to a discrete nanoparticle as a standing wave it is more correctly termed a localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). There is currently...
Dr
Xi Quan Cheng
(School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (SKLUWRE), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, P.R. China;Manufacturing Flagship ,CSIRO, Private Bag 33, Clayton South MDC, VIC 3169, Australia.)
04/02/2016, 10:15
A hydrophilic thin-film-composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane has been developed through the interfacial polymerization (IP) of amino-functional polyethylene glycol (PEG) and trimesoyl chloride. The selective layer is formed on a polyethersulfone (PES) support that is characterized using FTIR, XPS and SEM, and is dependent on monomer immersion duration, and the concentration of monomers...
Ms
Fenfen Chang
(The school of physics, university of New South Wales, NSW 2052)
04/02/2016, 11:30
Transition metal oxides (TMOs) represent a wide set of materials with a broad range of functionalities, including superconductivity, magnetism, and ferroelectricity, which can be tuned by careful choice of parameters such as strain, oxygen content, and applied electric and magnetic fields [1-4]. This tunability makes TMO’s ideal candidate materials for use in developing novel information and...
Dr
Helen Maynard-Casely
(Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)
04/02/2016, 11:45
Hydrates are a rich and diverse class of materials that display a wide range of structures and properties – a feature that is only exaggerated when they are subjected to high-pressures. Consequently, these have implications on our understanding of many outer solar system bodies, where hydrates are amongst the dominant materials found there.
For Europa and Ganymede, two moons under...
Dr
Kirrily Rule
(The Bragg Institute, ANSTO)
04/02/2016, 12:00
One of the simplest models exhibiting one dimensional (1D) frustrated quantum interactions is the so called J1-J2 model. In this model competing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbour interactions (J1>0) and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbours (J2<0) can give rise to novel phenomena such as multiferroicity for spiral spin states. Linarite, PbCuSO¬4(OH)2 is a natural mineral ideally suited to...
Dr
Xinzhi Liu
(China Institute of Atomic Energies, Beijing, 102413, China/Bragg institute, ANSTO, 2232, NSW)
04/02/2016, 12:15
Rare earth orthoferrite RFeO3 is a family of perovskite with fantastic property, such as ultra-fast spin switching[1], photomagnetic excitation[2]and multiferrocity[3]. These properties usually determined by their magnetic structure and unique spin reorientation(SR) effect. The antisymmetric interaction(DM interaction)[4] induce a weak ferromagnetism at room temperature, while the...
Prof.
Damian Myers
(The University of Melbourne)
04/02/2016, 14:00
Our current medical knowledge and understanding of human biology and physiology have been predicated by our capacity to image organs, body structures, different types of tissues and particular cell types. These imaging modalities range from advanced microscopy for imaging of cells and tissues through to 2D and 3D macroscopic techniques for imaging of tissues and organs. Soft tissues in...
Ms
Nicola Barrie
(CSIRO, Manufacturing)
04/02/2016, 14:30
Nicola Barrie, Marina Ali, Nicholas Manolios, Minoo J. Moghaddam1
Dept Rheumatology, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney; and
1Manufacturing Flagship, CSIRO, North Ryde.
**Aims**: To develop a novel drug delivery system using cannabinoid amphiphiles and evaluate the synovial homing capabilities of peptide-conjugated nanoparticles for the targeted treatment of arthritic...
Dr
Manickam Minakshi
(Murdoch University)
04/02/2016, 14:45
The storage and recovery of electrical energy is widely recognized as one of the most important areas for energy research. Although renewable energy such as i.e. wind and solar generated electricity is becoming increasingly available in many countries including Australia, these sources provide only intermittent energy. Thus, energy storage systems are required for load levelling, allowing...
Mr
Matthew Tate
(Bragg Institute, ANSTO)
04/02/2016, 15:00
Oxide ion conductors are used in a wide variety of applications, including oxygen sensors and separation membranes, but are undergoing significant study for their use in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which allow for the direct conversion of chemical to electrical energy. Apatite-type silicates and germanates, La9.33+x(TO4)6O2+3x/2 (T...
Nagarajan Valanoor
(UNSW Australia)
05/02/2016, 08:45
Interfacial control of a polar (rhombohedral)-to-non-polar (orthorhombic) phase transition in (001) oriented epitaxial BiFeO3/(Bi1-xSmx)FeO3 superlattices is presented. We demonstrate controlling the composition at which a polar phase transformation takes place by tuning the strength of the interlayer interactions while holding the average composition constant. It is shown that the thickness...
Dr
Daniel Sando
(School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales)
05/02/2016, 09:15
Chromism refers to a change in optical absorption of a material upon application of stimulus; e.g. photochromism – light; thermochromism – heat; electrochromism – electric charge; magnetochromism – magnetic field. This phenomenon has wide applications, in for example so-called ‘smart glass’ which can be switched from a transparent to opaque state through the application of voltage, heat, or...
Mr
Paul Graham
(University of New South Wales)
05/02/2016, 09:30
Multiferroic materials demonstrate desirable attributes for next-generation multifunctional devices as they exhibit coexisting ferroelectric and magnetic orders. In type-II multiferroics, coupling exists that allows ferroelectricity to be manipulated via magnetic order and vice versa, offering potential in high-density information storage and sensor applications. Despite extensive...
Mr
Hu Songbai
(UNSW Australia)
05/02/2016, 09:45
Controlling material properties by strain is one of the main concepts of thin film growth technology. By altering the order parameter in ferroic materials with which the lattice is coupled, new properties can be achieved, e.g. in perovskite SrCoOx which was identified as a parent phase of strong spin-phonon coupling materials. Here, we present results on a strain-induced...
Dr
Xiaodong Yuan
(Research Center of Laser Fusion, China Academy of Engineering Physics)
05/02/2016, 10:15
KDP (KH2PO4) is a nonlinear transparent dielectric crystalline material used in various laser systems for harmonic generation. It has been used for inertial confinement fusion in the National Ignition Facility, USA. However, the physical and chemical properties of the KDP crystals may degrade under γ and neutron radiations. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects of radiations on...
Dr
Tapio Simula
(Monash University)
05/02/2016, 11:00
Lars Onsager is perhaps best known as the recipient of 1968 Nobel Prize in chemistry and by his tour de force solution to the two-dimensional Ising model. However, his remarkable insight predicting the quantisation of vorticity in superfluid helium and the statistical mechanics description of two-dimensional turbulence have received much less attention. In this talk, I will briefly review...
Dr
Matt Woolley
(UNSW Canberra)
05/02/2016, 11:30
Among the most exciting recent advances in the field of superconducting quantum circuits is the ability to coherently couple microwave photons in low-loss cavities to quantum electronic conductors [1]. These hybrid quantum systems hold great promise for quantum information processing applications, and they enable the exploration of new physical regimes of light-matter interactions.
The...
Mr
Samuel Bladwell
(The University of New South Wales)
05/02/2016, 11:45
The dynamics of charge carriers in spin-orbit coupled systems is a vital area of investigation for the extremely active field of spintronics. Controlling and manipulating the flow of electrons and holes serves as the foundation of an entire class of spintronic devices, most notably the Datta-Das spin transistor \cite{Datta1990}. In this talk, I give an overview of the dynamics of charge...
Dr
Glen Stewart
(UNSW Canberra), Prof.
Sean Cadogan
(UNSW Canberra), Dr
Wayne Hutchison
(UNSW Canberra)
The rare earth (R) chromates RCrO4 form with the tetragonal zircon type structure (space group I41/amd). They are of interest because of competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic super-exchange interactions between the 3d (Cr5+) and 4f (R3+) sites, believed to be responsible for the giant magnetocaloric effect observed recently for R = Gd, Dy and...
Dr
Mohamad Hassan Amin
(The Centre for Advanced Materials & Industrial Chemistry in the school of Applied Science, RMIT University)
First used to facilitate oxidation reactions in 1800s, heterogeneous catalysts now play important roles in many other catalytic processes, such as hydrocarbon reforming, polymerization, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, long-chain hydrocarbons cracking and isomerization reactions. Nowadays, heterogeneous catalysis is the core of most modern conversion processes in the natural gas reforming,...
Dr
Gordon (D.Sc.) Troup
(School of Physics and Astronomy. Monash University, Clayton 3800,Vic. Australia)
This study is the delayed continuation of a project started in 1994, with red and white wines. The delay was by requested studies on whiskies and brandies. It now continues with Australian tawny ports ( fortified wines) and coffee flavoured liqueurs.
Four well known Australian tawny ports and two imported coffee liqueurs were purchased commercially. The EPR spectrometer was a Bruker with a...
Mr
Colin Bleasdale
(University of Wollongong)
The diamagnetic Kepler problem has been the basis of much work since the observation of oscillations in the spectrum of Barium in an external magnetic field by Garton & Tomkins [1]. These oscillations were related to the chaotic motion of the electron perpendicular to the applied magnetic field. Further work lead to a great understanding of the effects classical chaos has on quantum atomic...
Prof.
Clemens Ulrich
(The University of New South Wales)
Multiferroic materials demonstrate excellent potential for next-generation multifunctional devices, as they exhibit coexisting ferroelectric and magnetic orders. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a rare exemption where both order parameters coexist far beyond room temperature, making it the ideal candidate for technological applications. In particular, multiferroic thin films are the most promising...
Dr
Trevor Finlayson
(University of Melbourne)
Natural systems exhibiting critical phenomena are driven by fluctuations and have become the focus of attention across many branches of the physical and biological sciences. In the field of neuroscience for example, neurons in the brain appear to sit near a critical point where, on the one side there is stability with neurons ready to respond to stimuli, while on the other side, they fire in...
Dr
Alexey Kondyurin
(School of Physics, University of Sydney)
Space exploitation is impossible without large space structures. We need to make sufficient large volume of pressurized protecting frames for crew, passengers, space processing equipment, & etc. We have to be unlimited in space.
Now the size and mass of space constructions are limited by possibility of a launch vehicle. It limits our future in exploitation of space by humans and in...
Dr
Manuel Hinterstein
(UNSW Australia, Schoolof Materials Science and Engineering)
Piezoelectric ceramics exhibit the remarkable property to couple elastic strain and polarization under the influence of an applied electric field. Among the various types of piezoelectric devices, especially actuators rely on high electric fields to generate high strains and forces. Prominent examples for actuators are multilayer stack actuators used for nanopositioning or in modern combustion...
Ms
Emily Wern Jien Yap
(UNSW Australia/CSIRO Mineral Resources)
Since their discovery by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, X-rays have become a valuable tool for characterising the composition and structure of matter. The X-ray tube has long been central to techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. However, the external high-voltage power supply, size and costs associated with X-ray tube technology have limited the wider...
Mr
Patrick Tung
(University of New South Wales)
Understanding the relationship between the properties of piezoelectrics and its atomic structure is important in enhancing their properties. With the addition of enforced legislations motivating the removal of lead in all electronic products, research into the fundamental properties of lead-free piezoelectric materials is vital.
A promising lead-free piezoelectric is...
Ms
Shaymaa Albohani
(Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Murdoch University)
It is well recognised that to fully harness the potential of renewable energy generation, advances in materials to store and release that captured energy are required. Supercapacitors, with their fast charge-discharge rates, long life span, and high power density are one of the most promising targets for such applications. In order to maximise the performance of supercapacitors, electrode...
Mr
Dongyi Zhou
(School of Materials Sci. & Eng. UNSW)
Epitaxial spinel FeV2O4 (FVO) films of ~80 nm thickness were grown on (001) SrTiO3 (STO(001)) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. By using in-situ RHEED, we find that FVO grows in an island growth mode with a spot-like RHEED pattern observed. Both the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that the FVO film have a single-phase...
Dr
Gordon (D.Sc.) Troup
(School of Physics and Astronomy. Monash University, Clayton 3800,Vic. Australia)
Ten or fifteen years ago or less, sensory evaluation of a decaff. coffee would easily recognize it from its caffeinated form. With the development of the capsule method of coffee brewing, this is no longer true. Take-home coffee machines for this method are readily available, and give accurate volumes of hot water for the style of coffee required, e.g. short black, long macchiato.
Does the...
Dr
Zhan Sui
(Shanghai Institute of Laser Plasma, Shanghai, 201800, China)
Sapphire is used in diagnostic systems for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), where it will play important roles as electrical insulation and optical components. It is one of the optical candidate materials to be used in the high power solid-state laser driver for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). It is thus necessary to investigate the radiation effect in alumina...
Mr
Jonathan AVARO
(Southern Cross University)
In the classical nucleation theory, a mineral will form in supersaturated solution by the random collision of dissolved ions to yield transient clusters through a dynamic and reversible process. Random addition of dissolved ions eventually causes a “critical cluster” size to be reached, at which point the process becomes essentially irreversible and the first mineral crystal is considered to...
Dr
Edward Obbard
(UNSW Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications), Prof.
Yulin Hao
(Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science)
Research to optimize the biocompatibility of titanium alloys for orthopaedic applications focusses on minimizing the Young’s modulus of quenched, β-phase (Im-3m) titanium by adjusting the concentration of β-stabilizing elements. Ti-15Nb-2.5Zr-4Sn has the lowest Young’s modulus yet measured in any forged titanium alloy of less than 50 GPa. This composition also possesses a controllable thermal...
Mr
Daniel Jeremy Wilson
(The University of Auckland)
The large crystallographic and chemical diversity of copper-based metal oxides is one of their highlighting features and cause for pursuit into copper based material research. An interesting feature seen in copper based metal oxides is the coexistence of different copper oxidation states, in different crystallographic positions, within the same compound [1-3]. This can lead to a mixture of...
Prof.
Oleg Sushkov
(University of New South Wales)
The electron g-factor measured in a quantum point contact
by source-drain bias spectroscopy is significantly larger
than its value in a two-dimensional electron gas.
This enhancement, established experimentally in numerous studies,
is an outstanding puzzle. In the present work we explain the
mechanism of this enhancement in a theory accounting for the
electron-electron interactions....
Dr
Jingyu Chen
(Deakin Univ, Geelong, Australia, Institute of Frontier Materials)
In this study, an organogel composed of two low molecular weight gelators with distinct structures has been studied. One of the gelators is the derivative of anthracene with fluorescence, the other is based on glutamic acid. The gelation process and the structure of the self-assembled fibres have been studied with optical microscopes, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and rheometer. The...
Dr
Chin-Wei Wang
(National Synchrotron Research Center)
Neutron diffraction study of double tungstates Li2MII(WO4)2 (M=Co and Ni)
The isostructural Li2Co(WO4)2 and Li2Ni(WO4)2 crystallize in the triclinic structure (space group P-1, Z =1). The crystal structures can be viewed as alternating layers of WO layers and Li-MO layers alone the b-axis. The WO layers built up of edge-sharing WO6 octahedra forming infinite zigzag chains alone the a-axis...
Mr
Harley Scammell
(The University of New South Wales)
Motivated by magnetic quantum systems in the regime of finite temperatures and close vicinity to a quantum critical point, we develop a generalisation of the Fermi Golden Rule appropriate to handle the calculation of large decay widths. The ‘generalised golden rule’ is a self-consistent procedure, and the central results are generic. However, the present study specifically considers an O(3)...
Mr
Matthew Sanderson
(Wollongong University)
Optical bistability is found to occur under reasonable fields in a prism-air-graphene-dielectric structure. Due to this field, the reflection characteristics of the structure are modified such that the absorption peak which results in surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitation is shifted such that bistability arises.
This effect is due to the nature of the nonlinear SPP's which have their...
Hyung-Been Kang
(The University of Auckland)
Recently, the trigonal modification (sg. P321) of MnSb2O6 has drawn significant attention as it could be an unusual type of multiferroic behaviour and weakly polar material [1]. The magnetic susceptibility of MnSb2O6 shows a short range ordering below 200 K and long range ordering is observed below the Neel temperature (TN = 12.5 K) resulting in an incommensurately ordered three-dimensional...
Ms
Irina Kondyurina
(School of Medicine, University of Sydney)
Polyurethane is used in medicine for permanently implanted devices due to its elasticity, mechanical strength, biostability, biocompatibility and hemocompatibility. However, the immune system recognises polyurethane as foreign and initiates an immune response that can result in a range of negative consequences as foreign body rejection, inflammation, pain and dysfunction of the implant. We use...
Dr
Christopher Woodall
(University of Edinburgh)
Since the discovery of Single-Molecule Magnets (SMMs) in 1993 there has been extensive interest in understanding,[1] developing and tuning the nature of magnetic interactions within molecules the with emphasis on potential device miniaturisation and a bottom-up approach to building components. More recently attention has shifted from large polymetallic clusters of paramagnetic metal ions known...
Mr
Muhammad Salman Maqbool
(ARC CoE for Advanced Molecular Imaging, Department of Physics and Chemistry, La Trobe University)
Nanodiamonds (NDs) with nitrogen vacancy (N-V) centres have been shown to be useful for applications involving cellular tracking in vivo at the molecular level. The sustained fluorescence of these nanodiamonds is related to their structure, and is supposed to be influenced by the strain distribution inside the crystals. In nanocrystals even relatively small amounts of strain can induce large...
Dr
Claudio Cazorla
(School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Australia)
Multiferroics, materials that typically display ferroelectricity and magnetism, have generated a tremendous flurry of interest in recent years due to their fundamental complexity and potential for applications in nanoelectronics and energy conversion. Finding in nature single-phase compounds with those properties, however, has proved extremely difficult. Such a scarcity of bulk multiferroic...
Mr
Samuel Bladwell
(The University of New South Wales)
It is well known in Plasma physics that combinations of electric and magnetic fields lead to the drift of charge particles. In this work, we show that with the addition of a tilted magnetic field, drift analogous to that observed in plasmas occurs in systems with Rashba SO interactions. The resulting drift of the charge carriers has a direction dependent on the spin, rather than the charge of...
Mr
Mohammad Jahangir Hossain
(The School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Australia)
The solid solution system Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3 – xBaTiO3 (BNT-BT) has attracted wide research interest in the scientific community as a potential high-strain lead-free piezoelectric material. The electro-mechanical coupling mechanisms in a series of BNT-BT solid solutions with the BT content ranging from 5 mol% to 8 mol% in 0.25 mol% steps have been studied using in situ high-energy synchrotron...
Prof.
Andreas Magerl
(University Erlangen-Nürnberg)
While the structure of thiols on crystalline gold is dominated by the strong covalent bond between gold and sulfur atoms promoting an epitaxial coverage, the situation is much more delicate for silanes on crystalline or amorphous oxide surfaces due to the complex headgroup-surface interaction competing with the chain-chain interaction. By synchrotron X-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence...
Mrs
Faizun Nesa
(Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)
ZnFe2O4 is basically a non-inverted ferrite which is enormously used as ferrofluids, magnetoelectric refrigeration and contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging. A series of nanoparticulate ZnFe2O4 of average sizes Φ ˜ 9 nm to 90 nm with a range of inversion 0.008 to 0.35 has been produced by mechnochemical synthesis. The blocking temperature of the investigated samples has increased with...
Mr
Hao ZHANG
(School of Physics and Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 Australia)
Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a powerful technique to study materials properties such as complex dielectric response and conductivity in the far-infrared spectral region, with the advantages of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), noncontact optical probe, and measuring the amplitude and phase of electric field simultaneously thus not requiring Kramers-Kronig (K-K)...
Dr
Wayne Hutchison
(The University of New South Wales)
Magnetic refrigeration based on magnetocaloric effect is considered as a potential alternative to the conventional gas-compression based refrigeration [1], because the former can improve energy efficiency and reduce emission of environment-harmful chemicals. Materials with first-order magneto-structural transitions are of great interest for large magnetocaloric effect, e.g. Gd5(Si,Ge)4 and...
Mr
Glen Fletcher
(University of Technology Sydney)
The position and intensity of plasmon resonances in metallic nanostructures depends acutely on the complex dielectric function of the materials used and, of course, on the geometry, e.g. [1]. Ideally, the material or materials should possess a high DC conductivity and an absence of interband transitions in the visible part of the spectrum. Materials available vary from low-loss (Ag or K) to...
Prof.
Xiaodong Yuan
(China Academy of Engineering Physics)
Short pulse lasers (<10 ps) are used routinely for the investigations of high peak-power laser-matter interactions, such as laser micromachining [1-2], laser-driven accelerators, ultrafast dynamics in atoms and solids, and laser modulation spectrum in solids. However, laser-induced damage (LID) in optical components is still a limiting factor for the development of higher power laser systems...
Mr
Andrew Squires
(University of Wollongong)
Recent developments in Terahertz (THz) radiation open up applications in non-destructive and non-invasive analysis of artworks of cultural significance. This spearheads large interest in areas such as conservation science [1]. This arises due to favorable THz characteristics, which show large transmission for materials such as paints and plastics, as well as biological materials such as wood...
Dr
Anton Stampfl
(Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)
Several neutron spectrometers are available for use at the Bragg Institute. In particular a low energy band pass neutron spectrometer that operates in the range of ~50-1200 ${cm}^{-1}$ has very recently been commissioned and first experiments run on TAIPAN. The so-called Beryllium-filter spectrometer is predominantly used to obtain vibrational density of states spectra from those materials...
