Nanostructured superconductors and oxide materials understanding provide a path towards an energy sustainable world.
The Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group has been active in the field of superconducting materials since the discovery of High Temperature superconductors, and it has widely contributed to the field of vortex pinning analysis and materials development for more than 20 years. More recently it has shifted its interests towards the chemical solution approaches to superconducting thin films and coated conductors, due to its high potential in terms of cost-effectiveness for practical applications. Moreover, the department is contributing to develop chemical processing methods to oxide nanostructures for electronics and photovoltaics. Overall, the research approach of the department is based on vast scientific and technological interests which try to combine the generation of new knowledge in several fields at effective costs for a strategic sector with one of the highest social and environmental concerns: the development of a sustainable energy paradigm.
The physical properties of the nanostructured superconductors and oxide materials studied at the SUMAN group are mainly influenced by the growth methods of the thin films, and their microstructure, which can be modified by different chemical or physical methods
The entangled correlation between growth mechanism, its (nano)microstructure and the physical properties is at the origin of many novel phenomena and opportunities of oxide materials. At SUMAN group, we have investigated several oxide materials, mostly in the form of films, relying on chemical growth methods and defects analysis at atomic scale, for the understanding and engineering of superconducting, ferromagnetic, photovoltaic and electronic properties. Solution deposition has enable to demonstrate high temperature superconducting nanocomposite films growth with preformed nanoparticles as novel flux pinning centers. Oxygen vacancies have been detected as a very reliable defect and defect cluster to control the electronic properties of high temperature superconductors, also in resistive switching effects. High current thick HTS conductors have been grown using single-pass inkjet printing deposition.
A novel high throughput CSD method based on growth from transient liquids has demonstrated ultrahigh growth rates of YBa2Cu3O7-x films, where in-situ ultrafast XRD synchrotron experiments elucidated the growth mechanisms. A combinatorial approached based on ink jet printing deposition has started with the aim to advanced fast materials selection by machine learning. Superconducting nanowires have evidenced the highest critical current densities ever envisaged reaching theoretical depairing currents. We have placed superconducting Coated Conductors at the scene of future high energy circular accelerators for their low surface impedance properties at microwave frequencies, and are now seriously considered to protect high voltage dc grids.
In addition, chemical solution deposition has demonstrated its versatility in BiFe1-xCoxO3 ferroelectric perovskites films to tune the band gap, and in La1-xSrxMnO3 complex oxide films to engineer the oxygen migration in the novel phenomena of homogeneous volume resistive switching. Furthermore, we have continued studying other chemical methods like atomic layer deposition (ALD) for homogeneous Fe2O3 coatings of C-nanotubes, and polymer assisted deposition (PAD) for La0.92MnO3 thin films growth with dynamic magnetic and spin pumping properties, and for La2AMnO6 (A=Co, Ni) double perovskites with full cationic ordering and optimized magnetic properties.
Status of the European Union Project FASTGRID
P. Tixador, M. Bauer, CE Bruzek, A Calleja, G. Deutscher, B. Dutoit, F. Gomory, L. Martini, M. Noe, X. Obradors , M. Pekarcikova and F. Sirois
IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 29, 5603305, 2019
Depairing Current at High Magnetic Fields in Vortex-Free High-Temperature Superconducting Nanowires
V. Rouco, C. Navau, N. Del-Valle, D. Massarotti, G. P. Papari, D. Stornaiuolo, X. Obradors, T. Puig, F. Tafuri, A. Sanchez and A. Palau
Nano letters 19, 4174-4179, 2019
Thermal decomposition of CuProp(2): In-situ analysis of film and powder pyrolysis
S. Rasi, F. Silveri, S. Ricart, X. Obradors , T. Puig, P. Roura-Grabulosa and J. Farjas
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 140, 312-320, 2019
Radical and oxidative pathways in the pyrolysis of a barium propionate-acetate salt
S. Rasi, S. Ricart, X. Obradors , T. Puig, P. Roura and J. Farjas
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 141, 104640 , 2019
Coated Conductor technology for the beamscreen chamber of future high energy circular colliders
T. Puig, P. Krkotic, A. Romanov, J. O’Callaghan, D. Zanin, H. Neupert, P. Pinto, P. Demolon, Â. Costa, M. Taborelli, F. Perez, M. Pont, J. Gutierrez and S. Calatroni
Superconductor Science and Technology 32, 094006, 2019
Band Gap Tuning of Solution-Processed Ferroelectric Perovskite BiFe1–xCoxO3 Thin Films
P. Machado, M. Scigaj, J. Gazquez, E. Rueda, A. Sánchez-Díaz, I. Fina, M. Gibert-Roca, T. Puig, X. Obradors, M. Campoy-Quiles and M. Coll
Chem. Mat. 31, 947-954, 2019
Accelerated growth by flash heating of high critical current trifluoroacetate solution derived epitaxial superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 films
Z. Li, M. Coll, B. Mundet, A. Palau , T. Puig and X. Obradors
J. Mater. Chem. C 7, 4748-4759, 2019
Control of nanostructure and pinning properties in solution deposited YBa2Cu3O7-x nanocomposites with preformed perovskite nanoparticles
Z. Li, M. Coll, B. Mundet, N. Chamorro, F. Vallès, A. Palau , J. Gázquez, S. Ricart, T. Puig and X. Obradors
Scientific reports 9, 5828, 2019
Engineering Oxygen Migration for Homogeneous Volume Resistive Switching in 3-Terminal Devices
J. C. Gonzalez-Rosillo, R. Ortega-Hernandez, A. Benedikt, M. Coll, R. Dittmann, X. Obradors, A. Palau, J. Suñe and T. Puig
Advanced Electronic Materials 1800629 (8 pages), 2019
On the Role of Interfaces on Spin Transport in Magnetic Insulator/Normal Metal Heterostructures
J. Fontcuberta, H. B. Vasili, J. Gàzquez and F. Casanova
Adv. Mater. Interfaces 1900475, 2019
Engineering Ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Thin Films by Epitaxial Stress
S. Estandía, N. Dix, J. Gàzquez, I. Fina, J. Lyu, M. F. Chisholm, J. Fontcuberta and F. Sanchez
ACS Appl. Electron Mater. 1, 1449–1457, 2019
Tailoring the crystal growth of quartz on silicon for patterning epitaxial piezoelectric films
Q. Zhang, D. Sánchez-Fuentes, A. Gómez, R. Desgarceaux, B. Charlot, J. Gàzquez, A. Carretero-Genevrier and M. Gich
Nanoscale Adv. 1, 3741-3752, 2019
Dynamic magnetic properties and spin pumping in polymer-assisted-deposited La0.92MnO3 thin films
H. Wang, A. Pomar, S. Martin-Rio, C. Frontera, N. Mestres and B. Martinez
Journal of Material Chemistry C 7, 12633-12640, 2019
Spontaneous Cationic Ordering in Chemical Solution Grown La2CoMnO6 Double Perovskite Thin Films
H. Wang, J. Gazquez, C. Frontera, M. F. Chisholm, A. Pomar, B. Martinez and N. Mestres
NPG Asia Materials 11, 44, 2019
Effect of triethanolamine on the pyrolysis of metal-propionate-based solutions
S. Rasi, S. Ricart, X. Obradors , T. Puig, P. Roura-Grabulosa and J. Farjas
Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 143, 104685, 2019
Probing the lattice anharmonicity of superconducting YBCO via phonon harmonics
A. Ramos-Alvarez, N. Fleischmann, L. Vidas, A. Fernandez-Rodriguez, Anna Palau and S. Wall
Physical Reivew B 100, 184302, 2019
Growth of all-chemical high critical current YBa2Cu3O7-δ thick films and coated conductors
C. Pop, B. Villarejo, F. Pino, B. Mundet, S. Ricart, M. de Palau, T. Puig and X. Obradors
Superconductor Science and Technology 32, 015004, 2019
Double-cell superstructure and vacancy ordering in tensile-strained metallic thin films of Pr0.50Ca0.50 CoO 3 on LaAlO3
J. Padilla-Pantoja, X. Torrelles, J. Gàzquez, J. Rubio-Zuazo, J. Blasco, J. Herrero‐Martin and J. L. Garcia-Muñoz
Phys. Rev. Materials 3, 104407, 2019
Using evolved gas analysis - mass spectrometry to characterize adsorption on a nanoparticle surface
J. Martínez-Esaín, T. Puig, X. Obradors , Josep Ros, J. Farjas, P. Roura-Grabulosa, J. Faraudo, R. Yáñez and S. Ricart
Nanoscale Advances 1, 2740-2747, 2019
Enhanced ferroelectricity in epitaxial Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films integrated with Si(001) using SrTiO3 templates
J. Lyu, I. Fina, R. Bachelet, G. Saint-Girons, S. Estandia, J. Gázquez, J. Fontcuberta and F. Sanchez
Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 25529-25535, 2019
Direct observation of apical oxygen vacancies in the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-x
S. T. Hartman, B. Mundet, J.-C. Idrobo, X. Obradors, T. Puig, J. Gázquez and R. Mishra
Physical Review Materials 3, 114806, 2019
On the Role of Interfaces on Spin Transport in Magnetic Insulator/Normal Metal Heterostructures
J. Fontcuberta, H.B. Vasili, J. Gàzquez and F. Casanova
Adv. Mater. Interfaces 6, 1900475, 2019
Rotational polarization nanotopologies in BaTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices
S. Estandía, F Sanchez , M. F.. Chisholm and J. Gàzquez
Nanoscale 11, 21275-21283, 2019
Thermoelectric stack sample cooling modification of a commercial atomic force microscopy
A. Del Moral, J.C. González-Rosillo, A. Gomez, T. Puig and X. Obradors
Ultramicroscopy 196, 186-191, 2019
Atomic layer deposition of functional multicomponent oxides
M. Coll and M. Napari
APL Materials 7, 110901, 2019
Towards oxide electronics: A Roadmap
M. Coll, J. Fontcuberta, M. Althammer, M. Bibes , H. Boschker , A. Calleja, G. Cheng, M. Cuoco , R. Dittmann, B. Dkhil , I. El Baggarim, M. Fanciulli , I. Fina , E. Fortunato , C. Frontera , S. Fujita , V. Garcia , S.T.B. Goennenwein , C.-G. Granqvist, J. Grollier , R. Gross , A. Hagfeldt , G. Herranz , K. Hono , E. Houwmany, M. Huijben , A. Kalaboukhov , D.J. Keeble , G. Koster , L.F. Kourkoutis , J. Levy, M. Lira-Cantu , J.L. Macmanus-Driscoll , J. Mannhart , R. Martins, S. Menzel , T. Mikolajick, M. Napari , M.D. Nguyen , G. Niklasson , C. Paillard , S. Panigrahi , G. Rijnders , F. Sanchez , P. Sanchis, S. Sanna aj, D.G. Schlom , U. Schroeder, K.M. Shen , A. Siemon , M. Spreitzer , H. Sukegawa , R. Tamayo , J. van den Brink, N Pryds and F. Miletto Granozio
Applied Surface Science 482, 1-93, 2019
Electrochemical Reduction of Undoped and Cobalt-Doped BiFeO3 Induced by Water Exposure: Quantitative Determination of Reduction Potentials and Defect Energy Levels Using Photoelectron Spectroscopy
N. S. Bein, P. Machado, M. Coll, F. Chen, M. Makarovic, T. Rojac and A. Klein
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10, 7071-7076, 2019
Electromigration in the dissipative state of high-temperature superconducting bridges
X. Baumans, A. Fernandez-Rodriguez, N. Mestres, S. Collienne, J. Van de Vondel, A. Palau and A.V. Silhanek
Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 012601, 2019
Intrinsic anisotropy versus effective pinning anisotropy in YBa2Cu3O7 thin films and nanocomposites
E. Bartolomé, F. Valles, A. Palau, V. Rouco, N. Pompeo, F.F. Balakirev, B. Maiorov, L. Civale, T. Puig, X. Obradors and E. Silva
Phys. Rev. B 100, 054502, 2019
Spontaneous in-flight assembly of magnetic nanoparticles into macroscopic chains
L. Balcells, I. Stankovic, Z. Konstantinovic, A. Alagh, V. Fuentes, L. López-Mir, J. Oró, N. Mestres, C. Garcia, A. Pomar and B. Martinez
Nanoscale 11, 14194-14202, 2019
Singular spectrum analysis filtering and Fourier inversion: an efficient and fast way to improve resolution and quality of current density maps with low-cost Hall scanning systems
J. Amoros, A. Duranm, M. Carrera, J. Lopez and X. Granados
Measurement Science and Technology 30, 015010 (15 pages), 2019
FCC Physics Opportunities: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 1
FCC Collaboration
European Physical Journal-Special topics 79, 474, 2019
FCC-ee: The Lepton Collider: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 2
FCC Collaboration
European Physical Journal-Special topics 228, 261-623, 2019
FCC-hh: The Hadron Collider: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 3
FCC Collaboration
European Physical Journal-Special topics 228, 755-1107, 2019
HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4
FCC Collaboration
European Physical Journal-Special topics 228, 1109-1382, 2019