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Ferromagnetic films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy are of interest in spintronics and superconducting spintronics. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy can be achieved in thin ferromagnetic multilayer structures, when the anisotropy is…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the glass transition temperature of thin polymer films can be shifted as compared to the same polymer in the bulk, the amplitude and the sign of this effect depending on the interaction between the…
Liquid crystal elastomers are rubber-like solids with liquid crystalline mesogens (stiff, rod-like molecules) incorporated either into the main chain or as a side chain of the polymer. These solids display a range of unusual…
A systematic study is performed on the spinel oxide, i.e. LiTi2O4 thin films oriented along [111]-, [110]-, and [001]-directions, to reveal the crystallographic dependence of transport properties. With decreasing temperature, the LiTi2O4…
Nanotechnology and the consequent emergence of miniaturized devices are driving the need to improve our understanding of the mechanical properties of a myriad of materials. Here we focus on amorphous polymeric materials and introduce a new…
Thin polymer films have attracted attention because of both their broad range of applications and of the fundamental questions they raise regarding the dynamic response of confined polymers. These films are unstable if the temperature is…
Membrane-based sensors are an important market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Two-dimensional (2D) materials, with their low mass, are excellent candidates for suspended membranes to provide high sensitivity, small footprint…
The perpendicular shape anisotropy-spin transfer torque-magnetic random access memories (PSASTT-MRAMs) takes advantage of the nanopillar free-layer geometry for securing a good thermal stability factor from the shape anisotropy of the…
The confining effect of a spherical substrate inducing anchoring (normal to the surface) of rod-like liquid crystal molecules contained in a thin film spread over it has been investigated with regard to possible changes in the nature of the…
A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film.…
During electrostatic bonding, also known as anodic bonding, silicon is bonded to glass by applying an external voltage and simultaneous heating to temperatures of 200...450 $\deg$C. While cooling to working temperature after bonding…
Elastic moduli of liquid crystals, known as Frank constants, are of quintessential importance for understanding fundamental properties of these materials and for the design of their applications. Although there are many methods to measure…
A set of thin film Mn$_x$Si$_{1-x}$ alloy samples with different manganese concentration x = 0.44 - 0.63 grown by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method onto the Al$_2$O$_3$(0001) substrate was investigated in the temperature range 4 -…
Dielectric relaxation and thermal expansion spectroscopy were made for thin polystyrene films in order to measure the temperature $T_{\alpha}$ corresponding to the peak in the loss component of susceptibility due to the $\alpha$-process and…
Understanding interfacial heat transfer between polymers and water is crucial for the design of biomaterials, drug delivery platforms, and nanofluidic systems. In this study, we employed all atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to…
We describe a microscope-based optical setup that allows us to perform space-and time-resolved measurements of the spectral reflectance of transparent substrates coated with ultrathin films. This technique is applied to investigate the…
Recent studies have pointed the importance of polyelectrolyte assembly in the elaboration of innovative nanomaterials. Beyond their structures, many important questions on the thermodynamics of association remain to be answered. Here, we…
Deformations of amorphous polymer networks prepared with significant concentrations of liquid crystalline mesogens have been recently reported to undergo mechanotropic phase transitions. Here, we report that these mechanotropic phase…
As liquids approach the glass transition temperature, dynamical heterogeneity emerges as a crucial universal feature of their behavior. Dynamic facilitation, where local motion triggers further motion nearby, plays a major role in this…
There is a growing evidence that relaxation in glassy materials, both spontaneous and externally driven, is mediated by localized soft spots. Recent progress made it possible to identify the soft spots inside glassy structures and to…