Leuven Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center

From Discovery to Technology

The Leuven Nanocenter brings the research and development activities of the K.U. Leuven in the areas of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology together. The center is formed by groups from different departments and faculties and disposes of the broadest range of materials and tools for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology available in Flanders. Our mission is to strengthen the interdisciplinary research and development activities by implementing around specific themes the complete innovation chain starting from fundamental knowledge and scientific discoveries towards the implementation of practical solutions and complete systems. Read more ...

Events

• 2011 Taiwan Nano, October 5-7 2011, Taipei, Taiwan
• Graphene 2012, April 10-13 2012, Brussels, Belgium
• Workshop on biomaterials and their interactions with biological and model membranes, 19-23 September 2011, Salou, Spain
• Meta 12, International conference on Metamaterials, photonic crystals and plasmonics. 19-22 April 2012, Paris, France
• 1st EOS Topical Meeting on Micro- and Nano-Optoelectronic Systems, December 7-9 2011, Bremen, Germany
• ICMON 2011 : International Conference on Microelectronics, Optoelectronics, and Nanoelectronics\, November 28-30, 2011, Venice, Italy
• Transparent electrode : What else after ITO? State of the art and future prospects, 21 November 2011, Paris, France
• TNT Trends in Nanotechnology, November 21-25, 2011 Tenerife, Spain
• GISAXS 2011. October 10 - October 12, 2011 at DESY Hamburg, Germany
• Metamaterials '2011: The Fifth International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics, 10-15 October 2011, Barcelona, Spain
• HAXPES 2011 4th International workshop on Hard XPS, 14-16 September 2011, Hamburg, Germany
• Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics, Photonics and Renewable Energy, September 12-16 2011, Moscow, Russia
• International Symposium on Advanced Complex Inorganic Nanomaterials, September 11-14 2011, Namur, Belgium

Latest Results

All | Nanomagnetism | Superconductivity and fluxonics | Photonics and Photophysics | Electronics and Semiconductors | Catalysis and Reactors | NEMS and Precision Engineering | Nano-Materials | NanoBioSystems

• Transition from turbulent to nearly laminar vortex flow in superconductors with periodic pinning
  Posted by Victor Moshchalkov
  We revisit the vortex dynamics in Al thin films containing an artificial periodic array of antidots by means of electrical transport measurements. We clearly identify a turbulent to laminarlike vortex flow transition which manifests itself as a negative differential resistivity.
  
  
  

• Self-organized mode-locking effect in superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids
  Posted by Victor Moshchalkov
  The vortex dynamics in a low-temperature superconductor deposited on top of a rectangular array of micrometer size permalloy triangles is investigated experimentally. We demonstrate the spontaneous formation of two separated rows of vortices and antivortices along each line of connected triangles. The existence of a clear flux-flow regime at zero external field supports this interpretation. Striki
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• Type-1.5 Superconductivity
  Posted by Victor Moshchalkov
  We demonstrate the existence of a novel superconducting state in high quality two-component MgB2 single crystalline superconductors where a unique combination of both type-1 and type-2 superconductor conditions is realized for the two components of the order parameter. This condition leads to a vortex-vortex interaction attractive at long distances and repulsive at short distances.
  
  
  

• Symmetry-Induced Giant Vortex State in a Superconducting Film with a Fivefold Penrose Array of Magnetic Pinning Centers
  Posted by Victor Moshchalkov
  A direct visualization of the flux distribution in a Pb film covering a fivefold Penrose array of Co dots is obtained by mapping the local field distribution with a scanning Hall probe microscope. Strikingly, for H = 1.6H1, interstitial and pinned vortices arrange themselves in ringlike structures (‘‘vortex corrals’’) which favor the formation of a giant vortex state at their center.
  
  
  

• Formation of stripelike flux patterns obtained by freezing kinematic vortices
  Posted by Victor Moshchalkov
  We visualize the formation of flux rivers resulting from a short-range attractive interaction between vortices. This dynamically induced vortex-vortex attraction results from the migration of quasiparticles out of the vortex core (kinematic vortices).