Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Novel Materials”
This month’s ARC infrastructure funding round saw FLEET researchers across five universities on teams awarded additional funding towards research facilities, including significant new imaging resources in South Australia and NSW. Pankaj Sharma, initially a FLEET Research Fellow at UNSW and now a Centre AI at Flinders University (South Australia), will help develop new, state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy (AFM) facilities for the …
Published first at Flinders University Latest research from Flinders University and UNSW Sydney, published in the American Chemical Society ACS Nano journal, explores switchable polarization in a new class of silicon compatible metal oxides and paves the way for the development of advanced devices including high-density data storage, ultra low energy electronics, and flexible energy harvesting and wearable devices. The …
A collaboration of FLEET researchers from the University of Wollongong and Monash University have reviewed the superconducting diode effect, one of the most fascinating phenomena recently discovered in quantum condensed-matter physics. A superconducting diode enables dissipationless supercurrent to flow in only one direction, and provides new functionalities for superconducting circuits. This non-dissipative circuit element is key to future ultra-low energy …
‘Trimming’ the edge-states of a topological insulator yields a new class of material featuring unconventional ‘two way’ edge transport in a new theoretical study from Monash University, Australia. The new material, a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) forms a promising addition to the family of topological materials and significantly broadens the scope of materials with topologically nontrivial properties. Its distinctive reliance …
A recent UNSW-led paper published in Nature Communications presents an exciting new way to listen to avalanches of atoms in crystals. The nanoscale movement of atoms when materials deform leads to sound emission. This so-called crackling noise is a scale-invariant phenomenon found in various material systems as a response to external stimuli such as force or external fields. Jerky material …
Homogenous liquid-metal nanodroplets achieved with high-temperature molten salt Australian researchers put planets in the palm of the hand Liquid metal, planet-like nanodroplets are successfully formed with a new technique developed at RMIT University, Australia. Like our own Planet Earth, the nanodroplets feature an outer ‘crust’, a liquid metal ‘mantle’, and a solid ‘core’. The solid intermetallic core is the key …
A process has been developed to engineer nanoscale arrays of conducting channels for advanced scalable electronic circuitry Using ion implantation and lithography, investigators created patterns of topological surface edge states on a topological material that made the surface edges conductive while the bulk layer beneath remained an insulator Low energy ion implantation, neutron and X-ray reflectometry techniques at ANSTO supported …
FLEET funding is supporting the next step in possible translation of thermoelectrics research towards commercialisation in future generators, electronics, vehicles, human-wearable and environmental sensors, and smart electronics Thermoelectric materials offer potential solutions to heat-management challenges common to many electronics technologies. Thermoelectrics are solid-state semiconductors that can convert heat gradients into useful electricity (known as the Seebeck effect). They can also …
Liquid metals are enigmatic metallic solvents. A new UNSW-led study of metallic crystals growing in a liquid metal solvent finds similarities and differences between liquid-metal solvents and more-familiar crystal-growth environments (such as water or the atmosphere) in which snowflakes or crystals of dissolved substances form. We can dissolve a large amount of sugar in water at high temperatures. But as …
2D oxide-based LED encapsulation extending device lifetime FLEET translation funding is supporting the next step in a liquid-metal printing application with significant commercial promise, in a project being led by RMIT PhD candidate Patjaree Aukarasereenont. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) play a crucial role in modern society – from mobile phones to LED billboards and home lighting, LEDs are ubiquitous. There are, …
Gold may hold the key to unlocking an elusive but highly desirable reaction pathway. A new Australian-led stud finds gold atoms could be key to unlocking organic reactions. Organic molecules are the building blocks for materials we use every day – from our clothes and coffee cups to the screen displays of our phones. Controlling reactions of these organic molecules …
FLEET Investigator A/Prof Bent Weber, and his team at NTU Singapore, have demonstrated unprecedented control of a one-dimensional flow of electrons in a rare quantum state that physicists have sought to understand for over half a century. The technique suggests a path to more-robust and more-accurate quantum computers. From: Nanyang Technical University, Singapore As you walk in a crowded shopping …
Multidimensional coherent spectroscopy (MDCS) on monolayer WS2 reveals Fermi polaron interactions Phase-space filling drives new optical selection rules, where excitons compete for the same electron Identification of a novel, cooperatively-bound exciton-exciton-electron state Recent Australian-led research has provided a world’s first measurement of interactions between Fermi polarons in an atomically-thin 2D semiconductor, using ultrafast spectroscopy capable of probing complex quantum materials. …
Congratulations to Priyank Kumar at the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, who becomes a new Chief Investigator within FLEET. “I look forward to contributing to the objectives of FLEET through both fundamental and translational research,” said Priyank. “I would like to thank Michael Fuhrer, Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh and the FLEET team for providing me this opportunity.” Priyank has been an …
First project approved for FLEET Translation Program funding PhD candidates Mitch Conway, Abby Goff, and Jack Muir have recently been awarded $31,000 in FLEET’s first round of funding from the FLEET Translation Program (FTP). Their cross-node collaboration between Swinburne and RMIT aims to create a catalogue of high quality 2D materials, namely transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and their heterostructures. …
Majorana fermions promise information technology with zero resistance A new, multi-node FLEET review investigates the search for Majorana fermions in iron-based superconductors. The elusive Majorana fermion, or ‘angel particle’ proposed by Ettore Majorana in 1937, simultaneously behaves like a particle and an antiparticle – and surprisingly remains stable rather than being self-destructive. Majorana fermions promise information and communications technology with …
Designer heterostructure is a potential high-temperature QAHE, where a topological material is sandwiched between two ferromagnets A Monash University-led research team has discovered that a structure comprising an ultra-thin topological insulator sandwiched between two 2D ferromagnetic insulators becomes a large-bandgap quantum anomalous Hall insulator. Such a heterostructure provides an avenue towards viable ultra-low energy future electronics, or even topological photovoltaics. …
A new RMIT-led study stacks two different types of 2D materials together to create a hybrid material providing enhanced properties. This hybrid material possesses valuable properties towards use in future memory and electronic devices such as TVs, computers and phones. Most significantly, the electronic properties of the new stacked structure can be controlled without the need for external strain, opening …
A collaborative study led by the University of Wollongong confirms switching mechanism for a new, proposed generation of ultra-low energy ‘topological electronics’. Based on novel quantum topological materials, such devices would ‘switch’ a topological insulator from non-conducting (conventional electrical insulator) to a conducting (topological insulator) state, whereby electrical current could flow along its edge states without wasted dissipation of energy. …
In a landmark discovery, FLEET University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers have realised the non-contact manipulation of liquid metal. The metals can be controlled to move in any direction, and manipulated into unique, levitated shapes such as loops and squares by using a small voltage and a magnet. The liquid metal used is galinstan, an alloy of gallium, indium and tin, …
Harnessing massive Dirac fermions in dual-magnetic-ion-doped Bi2Se3 topological insulator showing extremely strong quantum oscillations in the bulk. Double doping induces a gap for the topological surface state. A University of Wollongong-led team across three FLEET nodes has combined two traditional semiconductor doping methods to achieve new efficiencies in the topological insulator bismuth-selenide (Bi2Se3), Two doping elements were used: samarium (Sm) …
Welcome to FLEET’s long-time collaborator Dr Simon Granville, who this month joins the Centre as a Partner Investigator. Simon is a Principal Investigator at FLEET’s partner organisation the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, where he leads the Institute’s Future Computing project to control electron transport and spin through superconductivity and topology. As a Senior Scientist at the Robinson …
Innovative epitaxy technique creates a new phase of the popular multiferroic BiFeO3 Stress enhances the properties of a promising material for future technologies. UNSW researchers find a new exotic state of one of the most promising multiferroic materials, with exciting implications for future technologies using these enhanced properties. Combining a careful balance of thin-film strain, distortion, and thickness, the team …
An intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 has been discovered with a large band gap, making it a promising material platform for fabricating ultra-low-energy electronics and observing exotic topological phenomena. Hosting both magnetism and topology, ultra-thin (only several nanometers in thickness) MnBi2Te4 was found to have a large band-gap in a Quantum Anomalous Hall (QAH) insulating state, where the material is …
2D kagome materials are a platform for tuneable electron-electron interactions ‘Star-like’ atomic-scale kagome geometry ‘switches on’ magnetism in a 2D organic material A 2D nanomaterial consisting of organic molecules linked to metal atoms in a specific atomic-scale geometry shows non-trivial electronic and magnetic properties due to strong interactions between its electrons. A new study, published today, shows the emergence of …
Congratulations to FLEET Research Fellow Dr Iolanda Di Bernardo (Monash), who has received the highly prized Juan de la Cierva fellowship to fund research in Spain, starting in Spring 2022. The Juan de la Cierva fellowship is highly competitive, with a success rate between 10 and 15%, and is similar to the Australian DECRA fellowship. The grants encourage the recruitment …
Congratulations to FLEET AI Dr Zhi Li (UOW) who received an ARC Future Fellowship in this month’s announcement. The new ARC Fellowship will support Dr Li’s study of iron-based high-temperature topological superconductors, based at the Institute of Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) at the University of Wollongong. The topological non-trivial nature and zero resistance of topological superconductors make them very …
—first published APS Physics Electrons flow like a viscous fluid through a 2D channel with perfectly smooth sidewalls, offering a new platform to test solid-state and fluid dynamics theories. Electrons can, under certain conditions, flow like a fluid that’s thicker than honey. Now researchers have managed to observe this viscous fluid behavior in a way that allows unambiguous measurements and …
Monash review: joining topological insulators with magnetic materials for energy-efficient electronics A new Monash review throws the spotlight on recent research in heterostructures of topological insulators and magnetic materials. In such heterostructures, the interesting interplay of magnetism and topology can give rise to new phenomena such as quantum anomalous Hall insulators, axion insulators and skyrmions. All of these are promising …
