Descripción del proyecto
ALL FERROIC MATERIALS (FERROELECTRICS, FERROMAGNETS, FERROELASTICS) CAN DISPLAY REGIONS ("DOMAINS") WITH DIFFERENT POLARITY OF THE ORDER PARAMETER, THE SEPARATIONS BETWEEN DOMAINS ARE KNOWN AS DOMAIN WALLS, DOMAIN WALLS CAN POSSESS FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES NOT EXISTENT IN THE HOST MATERIAL, SUCH AS CONDUCTIVITY OR EVEN SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN THE WALLS OF INSULATORS, FERROMAGNETISM IN THE WALLS OF ANTIFERROMAGNETS, OR POLARIZATION IN THE WALLS OF PARAELECTRIC FERROELASTICS, DOMAIN WALLS ARE EXTREMELY THIN STRUCTURES (BETWEEN 0,1 AND 10 NM FOR FERROELECTRICS, AND BETWEEN 10 AND 100 NM IN MAGNETS), THEY ARE SELF-ORGANIZED STRUCTURES AND THEY INTERACT STRONGLY WITH EXTERNAL FIELDS, THEY THEREFORE HAVE MUCH POTENTIAL AS A NEW KIND OF ELECTRONIC NANOSTRUCTURE,IN THIN FILMS, DOMAIN WALLS CAN OCCUPY A SIGNIFICANT FRACTION OF THE TOTAL VOLUME OF THE SAMPLE, AND THEIR PROPERTIES MAY BE DETECTABLE OR EVEN DOMINANT, THIS COULD POTENTIALLY BE USED TO MAKE NEW ELECTRONIC DEVICES AT AN UNPRECEDENTED SMALL SCALE, WHERE THE ¿ACTIVE INGREDIENT¿ ARE NOT THE DOMAINS BUT THE DOMAIN WALLS, IN THE PRESENT PROPOSAL, I WOULD LIKE TO OUTLINE THE INVESTIGATION OF INDIVIDUAL DOMAIN WALLS AS NOVEL ELECTRONIC NANOSTRUCTURES, THE GRANT IS ALSO INTENDED AS THE SEED OF A GROUP THAT WOULD SPECIALIZE IN THE INVESTIGATION OF FUNCTINAL PROPERTIES OF DOMAIN WALLS WHICH WOULD BE THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN SPAIN, THIS GENERAL AIM WILL BE EMBODIED IN TWO SPECIFIC GOALS FOR THE PRESENT PROJECT:1) THE SEARCH FOR FERROMAGNETISM INSIDE THE DOMAIN WALLS OF MULTIFERROIC MATERIALS, AND2) THE COUPLING BETWEEN DOMAIN WALLS OF DIFFERENT MATERIALS IN HETEROEPITAXIAL THIN FILM STRUCTURES,