ERC Advanced Grant for the Real-Time Observation of Emerging Properties in Ferroics
An ERC Advanced Grant was awarded to the "Laboratory of Multifunctional Ferroic Materials" of Prof. Manfred Fiebig for the development of a new technique for monitoring the emergence of ordered states in thin-film heterostructures in real-time, while they are growing. A laser-optical process is the basis of this approach.
Since transition-metal oxide heterostructures can be grown by pulsed-laser deposition with semiconductor-like accuracy, fascinating phases and functionalities derived from such accurately architecture samples have been discovered. Examples are conducting, ferromagnetic or even superconducting interfaces between otherwise insulating materials. So far, electron diffraction is the only widely established technique for monitoring multilayers in-situ, while they are growing, and provide direct feedback on how to optimize the growth process. The external pageERC Advanced Grant will allow the Laboratory of Multifunctional Ferroic Materials of Prof. Manfred Fiebig and Dr. Morgan Trassin to introduce nonlinear laser-optical processes as new in-situ technique that allows to track spin-and charge-related phenomena such as ferroelectricity, insulator-metal transitions, domain coupling effects or interface states in a non-invasive way throughout the deposition process. This new, property-monitoring tool in thin-film growth has an immense potential to uncover new states of matter and functionalities. A particular focus will be on the simultaneous emergence of magnetic and electric order in so-called "multiferroics", a long-standing topic in the group.