Author: Mar Tristany

The Network of Excellence (NOE) NANOSELECT is a natural continuation of the corresponding Consolider Project which was focused in Functional Oxide Materials. The Meeting will be also supported by the Severo Ochoa Program. The Program aims to promote excellence in scientific research in Spain. It targets centres or units that carry out cutting-edge research and are among the world’s best in their respective areas. The ICMAB is one of the top research institutions named as a Severo Ochoa Research Centre by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).

During the meeting SUMAN researchers presented their last results entitled:

• “Mechanisms of novel transient liquid assisted growth for ultrafast production of YBa2Cu3O7-x thin films” (oral communication by Laia Soler)
• “The role of Oxygen exchange kinetics in the engineering of carrier concentration of YBa2Cu3O7-x thin films” (oral communication by Alex Stangl)
• “Reversible tuning of spin textures and resistance states in High Temperature Superconducting films” (oral communication by Anna Palau)
• “Chemical growth techniques to nanoengineer functional oxide thin films and interfases ” (oral communication by Mariona Coll)
• ” Competition between octahedral tilts and polar shifts in perovskites” (oral communication by Jaume Gazquez)
• “Structural distortions triggered by the most common YBCO defect: the Y2Ba4Cu8O16 intergrowht” (oral communication by Bernat Mundet)

And the following posters:

• “In-situ thermal analysis of YBa2Cu3O7-∂ FF precursor solutions during pyrolysis: film versus powder” by S. Rasi, J. Farjas, P. Roura, S. Ricart, L. Soler, J. Jareño, T. Puig and Xavier Obradors
• “New insights in strained ReNiO3 thin films” by B. Mundet, J.Gázquez, R.Guzman, J. Jareño, J.C. González-Rosillo, X. Obradors and T. Puig
• “Physical Properties of Nanostructured, Liquid Assisted Grown, Epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-x Superconducting Films” by J.Banchewski, L.Soler, J.Jareño, R.Guzmán, S.Rasi, J.Farjas, P.Roura, S.Ricart, C.Mocuta, X.Obradors and T.Puig
• “Colloidal solutions of Nanoparticles in Alcoholic Ionic Environments for Growth of Nanocomposite Fucntional Oxides” by N.Chamorro, Z.Li, A.Garzon, P.Cayado, M.Coll, R.Yañez, J.Ros, T.Puig, X.Obradors and S.Ricart
• “Exceptional self-assembly by citrate bridge formation in LnF3 (Ln=Y, Gd) nanoparticles synthesis” by J.Martinez-Esain, J.Faraudo, T.Puig, X.Obradors, J.Ros, S.Ricart and R.Yañez
• “Synthesis and aplications of Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles and Fe3O4@CNT@SiO2 nanocapsules” by C.Lu, S.Sandoval, T.Puig, X.Obradors, G.Tobias, J.Ros and S.Ricart
• “Chemical co-substitution on multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films for next generation photovoltaics” by P.Machado, A.Sánchez, J. Gazquez, X.Obradors, M.Campoy-Quiles, T.Puig and M.Coll
• “YBa2Cu3O7-x nanocomposite films by CSD-ultrafast Transient Liquid Assisted Growth” by  J. Jareño, L.Soler, J.Banchewski, N.Chamorro, S. Rasi, R. Guzmán, J.Martínez, S.Ricart, J.
  Ros, J.Farjas, C. Mocuta, X. Obradors and T. Puig
• “Preparation of nanostructured YBCO YBa2Cu3O7 – BaMO (M=Zr, Hf) superconductor nanocomposite using colloidal solution with preformed oxide nanoparticles” by Z. Li, M. Coll, N. Chamorro, B. Mundet, J. Gazquez, F. Vallés, A. Palau, C. Pop, J. Ros, S. Ricart , T. Puig and X. Obradors
• “Defect analysis in new liquid-mediated YBa2Cu3O7 thin films” by R. Guzman, L. Soler, J. Jareño, J. Banchewski, S. Ricart, X. Obradors and T Puig
• “Tuning of the electronic structure in High Temperature Superconducting films at nanometric scale” by A. Fernandez, J.C. Gonzalez-Rosillo, X. Obradors, A. Palau, N. Mestres and T. Puig
• “Superconducting Medium Speed Synchronous Electrical Generator for 2MW class of Wind Mills” by X. Granados, J. López-López, A. Muñoz, J.L. Rodriguez-Izal, C. Salvatierra, E. Martínez, A.L. Angurel, T. Puig and X. Obradors
• ” Vortex pinning in CSD YBCO nanocomposite films also at ultrahigh magnetic fields” by F.Vallès, A.Palau, Z. Li, B. Mundet, B. Villarejo, C. Pop, F. Pino, M.Coll, J. Gázquez, S. Ricart, X.
  Obradors and T. Puig
• “Thick YBa2C3O7-x layers with ink jet printing single deposition” by B. Villarejo, Flavio Pino, C. Pop, S. Ricart, P. Roura, J. Farjas, N. Chamorro, J. Ros, X.
  Obradors and T. Puig
• “Chemical solution deposition growth of low fluorine thick coated conductors of YBa2Cu3O7 and YBa2Cu3O7 nanocomposites with preformed BZO nanoparticles” by C. Pop, B. Villarejo, F. Pino, N. Chamorro, F. Valles, B. Mundet, A. Palau, J. Gazquez, A. Usoskin, S. Ricart, T. Puig and X. Obradors

From 9 to 13th July our head department, Prof. Teresa Puig, has assisted to 2017 Cryogenic Engineering Conference and International Cryogenic Materials Conference and she presented an invited talk entitled “Vortex pinning landscape in low cost chemical solution Nanocomposite YBa2Cu3O7-x coated conductors”

The PhD student Ferran Vallés Pérez visited the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee (Florida, USA) to perform electrical transport measurements on the superconducting films grown at ICMAB up to 35T, one of the highest DC fields on the earth, generated using a maximum electrical power of 23.3 MW. The study of these superconducting films is indeed performed with the challenging idea to use them for the fabrication of electromagnets that will be capable to generate these high magnetic fields with much less power consumption.

Our PhD student, Jordi Martínez, has been awarded with the second prize for his poster, abstract and oral presentation entitled “Uncovering the surface chemistry of LnF3 nanoparticles” during the “Jornades Doctorals 2017“ organized by the Chemistry Department of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Jordi Martínez is a predoctoral researcher doing his PhD thesis under the supervision of Susagna Ricart, from ICMAB, and Ramón Yañez, from the Chemistry Department of the UAB.

His research is devoted to the synthesis and characterization of LnF3 (lanthanide fluoride) nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are then used to nanostructure superconducting materials and providing them with different and interesting properties. 

Congratulations, Jordi! 

Last night, on May 24, Xavier Obradors received the Ambassador Award from the Regió 7 daily journal. Neus Munté, Minister of Presidency and government spokesperson, delivered the award. 

The awards ceremony took place in the Auditorium Plana de l’Om in Manresa, and Xavier was the first one to receive the award. During his speech, he said he was proud that this award linked his professional scientific life with his territory and his people. 

Xavier stated that scientists are facing global challenges, and that they keep progressing from the uncertainty and the unknown. In this way, he would like that the scientific advances achieved in the Research Centers could be transferred faster to the society, to the industry, to the people.

As ICMAB director, this is what he has been aiming for. “Research should become a benefit for our country; it is a future investment, not an expense. Our economy has no future without being strong in this area.”

Congratulations, Xavier, for this “Ambassador” award!

More information in Regió 7. 

The PhD Student Juan Carlos Gonzalez-Rosillo has defended his PhD thesis:

Title: Volume resistive switching in metallic perovskite oxides driven by the metal-insulator transition

Date:  Friday 19th May
Time: 11:30 am
Place: Auditorium of the Centre de Recerca Matematica (CRM) at the Facultat de Ciències-UAB

Abstract: Resistive-Random Access Memories (RRAM) are one of the most promising candidates to overcome the limitations of actual data storage technologies, due to their excellent performance. They are based on the Resistive Switching effect (RS), where the application of an electric field produces a reversible, non-volatile change in the resistance between two or more resistive states. In transition metal oxides, the motion of oxygen is widely accepted to play a key role in their outstanding properties. However, the exact mechanism governing this effect is material-dependent and for some of them it is still far to be understood. In this thesis, we present a novel Resistive Switching mechanism based on the Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT) in metallic perovskite oxides with strong electron-electron interaction. We analyse the RS behaviour of three different families of metallic perovskites: La_1-xSr_xMnO₃, YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x and RENiO3 and demonstrate that the MIT of these mixed electronic-ionic conductors can be tuned upon the application of an electric field, being able to transform the entire bulk volume.

Supervisors:
              Prof. Teresa Puig (SUMAN group, ICMAB)
              Dr. Anna Palau (SUMAN group, ICMAB)

PhD committee:
             President: Prof. Jordi Suñé (UAB)
             Secretary: Javier E. Villegas (CNRS-Thales)
             Vocal: Prof. Regina Dittmann (Forschungszentrum Jülich)

The Regió 7 Awards, this year in their eighteenth edition, recognize people and organizations who have excelled in different fields related to economics and society.

Xavier Obradors has been awarded the Ambassador Award, which honors a person who has excelled in his work outside Central Catalonia while broadcasting the territory.

Xavier was born in Manresa, and since 2008 he is the ICMAB director. He studied physics at the Universitat de Barcelona, and earned his PhD from the same university in 1982,  having performed PhD research stays in Toulouse and Grenoble. After a period of postdoctoral fellow and Associate Professor (Prof. Titular) at the University of Barcelona, he became Research Scientist at CSIC in 1989, and Research Professor in 1992. His research interests cover a broad spectrum, from innovative materials preparation with controlled nano and microstructure, to the search for the comprehension of the physical mechanisms underlaying the magnetic and superconducting properties of materials. Currently, his research focuses in the nanoscale control of superconducting materials, with a special interest in low cost processing approaches. He is member of the “Superconducting materials and large scale nanostructures” SUMAN group at ICMAB.