Prof. Eric Hellstrom from the Applied Superconductivity Center at National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (USA) was invited to the ICMAB and he lectured about “Development of Bi-2212 wires for High-Field Magnet applications”.

Short abstract: Bi-2212 (Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox) is the only cuprate-based high-temperature superconductor (HTS) that can be made as a round wire.  These round wires can be made with a multifilament architecture, can be twisted, and can be easily cabled (Rutherford and 6-on-1 cables), which are important attributes for building high-field magnets (> 30 T).

Even though the first round-wire Bi-2212 were made in 1989, until recently, Bi-2212 wires did not have high enough J_c for practical applications.  The problem was bubbles that form in the wire during processing that block current.  In this talk I will describe the development of overpressure (OP) processing, which is a form of hot isostatic pressing (HIP), that removes the bubbles and yields high J_c.  Now that we have identified and can remove the main current limiting mechanism, we are reinvestigating all aspects of the heat treatment of Bi-2212 to understand how each portion of the heat treatment affects the final electromagnetic properties of Bi-2212.

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/search/personnel/getprofile.aspx?lname=Hellstrom&fname=Eric

OXOLUTIA spin-off jointly with SUMAN researchers applied for a new national patent entitled “MÉTODO DE FABRICACIÓN DE LÁMINAS DELGADAS DE ÓXIDOS EPITAXIALES MEDIANTE IMPRESIÓN DE CHORRO DE TINTA” to the Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (Madrid).

From 12^th May to 11^th July 2014, Juan Carlos Gonzalez went to the group of Prof. Renner at Département de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Genève, Genève (Switzerland) as visitor to work on “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Resistive Switching phenomena in La_1-xSr_xMnO_3-x compounds” under the supervision  of Dr. Ivan Maggio-Aprile.

http://dpmc.unige.ch/gr_renner/en/index.html

Between the 25^th and 27^th June, it was celebrated the last annual meeting of NANOSELECT (CONSOLIDER project) at Hotel Eden Roc at Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona) and SUMAN students participated very actively.

We got oral presentations from Dr. Cornelia Pop, Ferran Vallès, Laia Soler, Pablo Cayado, Rafael Ortega, Albert Queraltó and poster presentations from Bohores Villarejo, Júlia Jareño and Zack Khayat. In addition, Alba Garzón and Konstantina Konstantopoulou presented oral contributions of the collaboration work with our group.

From OXOLUTIA spin-off, Dr. Marta Vilardell presented an oral contribution and Dr. Roxana Vlad and Sara de Arriba presented poster contributions.

The tittles of each contribution can be checked in the program of the meeting.

http://ipanema.icmab.es/nanoselect/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=41

The CSIC has awarded the Proyectos Intramurales Especiales project named “Tuning complex oxide perovskites based on emerging new concepts of volume resistive switching phenomena for non-volatile memories” to the group (SUMAN IP: Prof. Teresa Puig) with 70 k€ for 2 years (2014-2016).

Marta Vilardell defended her PhD Thesis, entitled “Inkjet printing: a flexible manufacturing of functional ceramic oxides by Chemical Solution Deposition”, on the 8th of May, the jury formed by Prof. M. Lourdes Calzada (ICMM-CSIC, Madrid), Prof. Jordi Carrabina (CAIAC-UAB, Barcelona) and Prof. Isabel Van Driessche (UGhent, Belgium) awarded her work with an Excel·lent Cum Laude which is the maximum qualification for a PhD thesis at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Congratulations Marta!

During the days between 21^st -25^th of April, Teresa Puig, Xavier Obradors, Jaume Gazquez and Albert Queraltó went to San Francisco (USA) to assist to the Spring Meeting of the Material Research Society.

Teresa Puig was co-organizer of Symposium T, chairman at sessions 1 and 15 of Symposium T and at Symposium J, presented an oral communication entitled “Resistive Switching Phenomena in Metallic Complex Functional Oxides” and “Chemical Solution Route to Self-Assembled Epitaxial Oxide Nanostructures” at Symposium RR.

Xavier Obradors was co-organizer of Symposium RR, chairman at session 6 of Symposium R and at Symposium T, presented an invented talk about “Advances in Coated Conductor Research in Europe”

Jaume Gazquez was chairman at session 2 of Symposium T and presented an invited talk entitled “In-Depth Characterization of the Challenging Microstructure of YBa2Cu3O7-d Nanocomposites: The Origin, Evolution and Interaction of Structural Defects”. At Symposium DDD, he presented an oral communication about “Atomic-Scale Imaging of a Complex Point Defect: Origins and Control of O-Decorated Cu Vacancies in YBa2Cu3O7-x“.

At Symposium K, Albert Queraltó presented a poster about “Nucleation and Growth Mechanisms of Epitaxial Ce1-xGdxO2-y Nanostructures” and an oral communication entitled “Laser-Induced Crystallization of Functional Oxides Thin Films Grown from Chemical Solutions” at Symposium RR.

http://www.mrs.org/spring2014/

Xavier Obradors, member of the Reial Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona, held a conference about “Nanomaterials from the 3^rd industrial revolution” to commemorate the Academy 250^th birthday.

http://www.racab.es/