The information technology and communication sector (ICT) has been undergoing remarkable progress fuelled by integrational advancements in its building blocks, the field effect transistor (FET). The FETs in commercials microprocessors still use more than half a century old energy-intensive conductance switching processes to perform logic operations. It is well understood that the inability to remove the dissipated energy in such switching process will eventually stop the ongoing downscaling of the microprocessors in the next few years. Spintronic-based devices, working by virtue of energy efficient switching the spin-polarization, are considered to bring a paradigm shift in logic operations. Such devices use charge-to-spin interconversion (CSI) which is maximized in materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The main goal of ACCESS is to engineer inversion symmetry and SOC in vertical heterostructures of two-dimensional layered materials (2DLMs) to facilitate the CSI process. We shall fabricate dual gated hBN encapsulated FETs using the 1T' phase of transitional metal dichalcogenides and its twisted bilayers to tune symmetry and SOC. ACCESS will exploit the Edelstein effect and intrinsic Berry curvature dipole to generate current-induced magnetization and detect it via unidirectional magnetoresistance (UMR) and nonlinear Hall effect (NHE) measurements. The CSI in our samples will be further tuned by dynamically varying vertical displacement field and the charge carrier density in the channel. By this way, ACCESS will harness the topological properties of 2DLMs for applications in future spintronics devices, capable of magnet-free spin-to-charge interconversion. Besides its scientific goals, ACCESS also focuses on strengthening the researcher’s transferable skills and providing him a high-quality interdisciplinary research training, helping him to build a promising scientific research career.

We live in a technological world where usage of electronic devices for information technology is an integral part of everyday life. Present and future technological progress requires miniaturization of such devices, continuous improvement of their performances and decreasing of energy consumption. Spintronics, a growing research field based on the manipulation of the spin of the electrons, offers devices that fulfil these needs. However, a new generation of proposed spintronic devices are yet to be realized due to the lack of a tuneable spin transport channel. The major obstacle to build such channel is that the transport and the manipulation of spins (which require weak and strong spin-orbit coupling, respectively) in the same material are mutually exclusive. 2DSTOP addresses this problem by exploiting the unconventional spin-dependent properties of the transition metal dichalcogenides. In these two dimensional (2D) layered materials, electrically tuneable spin transport in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling is theoretically predicted. 2DSTOP envisions the experimental realization of such predictions. Combining these materials with other 2D materials such as graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, this proposal plans to investigate not only the spin transport, but also some of the exotic spin-orbit-related phenomena. This way, the project aims at acquiring scientific knowledge with potential technological applications to be useful for both academia and industry. Moreover, the ultimate goal of 2DSTOP is to offer high-quality interdisciplinary research training for an aspiring young researcher helping him to build a promising scientific research career.

One of the most challenging problems in material science is establishing a relation between material’s properties and interfacial structure. The presence of interfaces may strongly affect the properties of most polycrystalline materials. Interfaces play a determining role in properties of functional oxide heterostructures – artificial materials that attracted an increased attention over the past decade due to the wide range of properties they exhibit. The ability to predict equilibrium atomistic structure of interfaces in multicomponent systems using theoretical methods would provide a better understanding of the relation of interfaces to the physical properties of materials. The OXIREC project aims to develop a robust and efficient methodology for theoretical prediction of structural reconstruction at complex oxide interfaces. The project addresses an insight into the principles of interfacial reconstruction in several technologically important heterostructures. The outcome of the project will provide a great fundamental impact opening pathways for prediction various systems with desired properties, as well as a practical impact for oxide industry and manufacturing technologies.

In a world of enormously rising energy consumption and environmental pollution, the demand for clean and renewable energy sources and for minimizing the energy loss is of critical importance. One strategy towards improved efficiency involves capturing and recycling the “waste” heat from all energy conversion processes. With a special class of materials, known as thermoelectrics, thermoelectric generators can be devised, which allow a direct conversion of heat into electricity. The goal of HYTEM is to develop advanced organic-inorganic hybrid thermoelectric materials by applying a newly developed concept of simultaneous vapour phase coating and infiltration (VPI/SCIP) of polymers with inorganics. SCIP is a viable, scalable and robust preparative strategy for obtaining high-performance hybrid superlattice TE materials with chemically linked organic/inorganic interfaces, which have never been demonstrated before. The originality of this work lies in creating a new hybrid materials set, where hierarchical superlattice structures of different inorganic materials are simultaneously grown in the subsurface of a polymer and on its top, which will allow to obtain a superior TE performance. An initial growth of inorganic nanoparticles inside a polymer bulk by infiltration will generate nanoscale point defects in the polymer, which will reduce the thermal conductivity of the matrix by inducing phonon scattering, while at the same time the electrical conductivity will be enhanced. To date, no work has been done to explore the potential of VPI/SCIP to generate hierarchical inorganic structuring in polymers. The knowledge gained from these experiments will have a great impact on the research of hybrid TEs due to the uniqueness of VPI/SCIP.

Topological quantum computation (TQC) deals with the transformations related to the overall shape (“topology”) of a quantum trajectory to perform operations on data and go beyond the limitations of quantum computation. It is a revolutionary technique because it will allow quantum operations to be error free and robust while taking advantage of the radically new approaches of quantum computation, which means smaller systems, less energy dissipation, and faster processing. TQC may be naturally implemented using atomic scale systems such as those created by atomic manipulations with scanning probe techniques. The present project is to lay the foundations to make TQC possible. These foundations are the discovery of new exotic states of matter by developing the science and technology of 1-D chains of magnetic moments on superconductors. This implies multi-disciplinary training in single-molecule chemistry, fabrication of superconducting materials, atomic scale magnetic devices and quantum-computation principles. The project is aimed at creating unique career perspectives by learning skills in the atomic engineering of topological superconductors which will grant Dr. Choi a leading independent position. Intersectoral secondments will be used to explore industry interest in developing TQC as a high-value added technology.