A delegation of the Korean National Science & Technology Commission (NSTC) Delegation led by Dr. Cha-Dong Kim visited us on 7 December. 
During the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) Benelex Student meeting, Niels De Greef is selected for the best presentation award together with a student from UCL and is nominated for the JEC award competition, which will be held in conjunction with the SAMPE Europe Student Meeting in Paris, March 2012. Congratulations!
Correlation between strain and the metal–insulator transition in epitaxial V2O3 thin films grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy by L. Dillemans et al., 
Deposition and characterization of MgO/Si gate stacks grown by molecular beam epitaxy by Chen-Yi Su et al., Research
The Functional Nanosystems group of the Laboratory of Solid State Physics and Magnetism works on the elaboration of
advanced nanomaterials and their assembly into functional devices and systems. Advanced nanomaterials – such as nanoparticles,
heterostructures and bio-hybrids – with a functional response are very useful for many applications in fields like electronics,
materials science, catalysis, energy production and medicine. These responses universally originates through a change of a state
variable such as a charge or spins density, a spin or dipole orientation, an excited state, a mechanical deformation, a molecular arrangement etc.
While many artificially tailored nanomaterials offer great potential towards the discovery of novel properties and functions, their practical
usefulness depends on the coupling to external forces (such as electric and magnetic fields) and is therefore often limited by unknown and
uncontrolled surface and interface details. The preponderant role of those interfaces is perhaps best illustrated by the discovery of novel
interface functionality such as the appearance of magnetism between two non-magnetic insulators or the appearance of superconductivity between two insulators.
The generic approach that is followed here relies on three objectives, namely (1) to explore the synthesis of novel nanomaterials;
(2) to precisely control the functionality of these materials by atomic scale engineering and monitoring; and
(3) to translate the results into practical devices, tools and systems.
Research topics
- Theoretical study of strongly correlated electron systems
- Synthesis of carbon nanotubes and carpets
- Tailored oxide – semiconductor interfaces
- Magnetoelectricity in oxide heterostructures
- Piezoelectric properties of electro-optical materials
- Nanoparticles for Electron Emission Tumor Treatment
- Oxides with a High Dielectric Constant
- Oxides semiconductors
- Electric Field Induced Metal - Insulator - Transition
- Compact x-ray radiation sources
- Synthesis and characterization of Li2MPO4F (M=Co, Ni, Mn), Cathode materials for Lithium Rechargeable batteries.
- High mobility semiconductor materials
- Crystallization of germanium films
