PhD grants : Heat flows manipulation with an electric field (EMSTU)

• 36 months doctoral funding (October 2021 to September 2024)
• Keywords

oxides, ferroelectrics, thermal properties

• Profile and skills required

Student in Master or Engineering school in Physics, Chemistry or Materials Science, with a clear mention of initiation to research. Motivated and dynamic student with strong abilities for experimental work, a good knowledge of English (written and spoken) as well as writing abilities. A research experience in a laboratory is welcome.

• Project description

Recent experimental results and simulations show that ferroelectric oxides can be used to obtain a dynamic heat flow control in a large temperature range. Ferroelectric oxides possess an electric polarization that spatially change within a sample and that can be controlled by an applied electric field. Regions of uniform polarisation are called domains and the boundaries between adjacent domains are called domain walls.

This multidisciplinary PhD project focuses on the experimental study of thermal conductivity in ferroelectric oxides under electric field towards the understanding of phonons-domain walls interactions in these systems. It will be developed by combining a materials science approach, focusing on the control of the domain structure to maximise domain walls density, with a condensed matter physics approach, where thermal conductivity and phonon dynamics will be investigated.

• References

[1] N. Li et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 001045 (2012) ;

[2] E. Langenberg et al., Nano Lett. 19, 007901 (2019) ;

[3] J.A. Seijas-Bellido et al., Phys. Rev. B. 96, 140101 (2017) ;

[4] B. Casals, G.F. Nataf, E.K.H. Salje, Nat. Commun. 12, 345 (2021) ;

[5] G.F. Nataf et al., Nature Reviews Physics 2, 634 (2020)

• To apply, click here