Former Research Groups

The key to establish a fundamental understanding of the links between synthesis, microstructure and properties is to characterize materials on all hierarchical levels of microstructure. Advanced Transmission Electron Microscopy offers versatile techniques enabling the analysis of atomic arrangements, microchemistry, defect structures, interfacial phenomena and precipitate structures. The development and application of advanced TEM techniques, including atomic resolution aberration-corrected imaging, analytical TEM and in-situ TEM are major areas of research. [more]

The structure and behaviour of interfaces—such as grain boundaries, which are abundant in virtually all materials used in engineering applications—is of ever-increasing interest to those trying to understand and improve the properties of micro- and nanostructured materials. Computer simulations at an atomistic scale come in where experiments are necessarily limited: High spatial and temporal resolution, as well as the possibility to quickly produce clean model setups, allow us to understand the mechanisms of phase transitions and mechanical deformation at the scale where they occur. [more]

Designing damage tolerant functional oxide nanostructures
Multiferroic oxide films have enormous potential applications in next-generation electronic, memory and energy harvesting technologies due to their perovskite structure. [more]

Interfaces, such as surfaces or grain boundaries, play a crucial role in determining the global mechanical behaviour and properties of materials. These interfaces can act as barriers to dislocation motion, influencing the strength, ductility, and fracture behaviour of materials. In addition, chemical reactions or varying chemical composition at these interfaces can affect the mechanical properties of materials, along with corrosion resistance and wear behaviour. Understanding the micromechanical behaviour at these interfaces is therefore critical for the design and optimisation of materials for a wide range of applications, from structural materials to electronic devices or batteries. [more]

The scientific mission of the Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials group is to extract mechanical properties of materials at the microstructural length scale and link the mechanical response with the initial and evolving defect structure. The primary focus therefore lies on the deformation response of individual single crystals, bi-crystals or selected interfaces – where metallic thin-film systems are of particular interest. [more]

Formerly Nanotribology group
“Tribology” is the study of friction and wear. Both mechanisms occur in the majority of transportation and manufacturing equipment and the friction induced energy loss is around 30-40%. Hence, the reduction of friction leads to a reduction of the energy requirement and therefore environmental and financial protection. [more]