Research area: Properties of engineered meta-materials and mesoscopic energy devices
The properties of electrons, phonons, ions etc. in condensed matter systems are governed by different length scales; mean-free path, coherence lengths, diffusion lengths etc. I am interested in understanding the properties of crystals when the typical dimensions of the crystal morphology become comparable to these characteristic scales. Pushing the resolution of semiconductor processing we design templates to control the shape in which crystals grow. The resulting macroscopic materials are composed of millions of individually designed nanostructures and have functionalities which combine the familiar properties of the host materials with the peculiar and often surprising phenomena of nanoscale physics and the coupling of environmental stimuli to the designed shape. The link between structure and functionality is typically investigated by combining electron- and scanning probe microscopy with detailed electrical measurements from room-temperature to the milli-kelvin regime.
As a second main activity I am interested in understanding and exploiting the properties of low-dimensional oxides. This includes correlated phenomena in oxides interfaces and of free-standing membranes where the coupling to mechanical degrees of freedom such as twist and strain is of particular interest.
Start date of employment: 01-02-2021