Materials Science of Functional Oxides

About me

I am Professor of Materials Science in Cambridge.  I am a Long Term Visiting Staff Member at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, and am founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, APL Materials, from the American Institute of Physics (http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/aplmater). I am a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, American Physical Society, IOM3, and IOP. 

About my work

My group's research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for a variety of energy applications for generation, transmission, storage and harvesting. Oxides are of growing interest to all the applied science community owing to their very wide range of functions. However, their compositions tend to be complex, defects are prevalent, and interface effects play a strong role. Also, for many applications device structural dimensions are required down to nanometre length-scales. Together, all these factors produce exciting challenges for the materials scientist.

The materials systems currently under study in my group are complex magnetic oxides for new kinds of magnetoelectrics, superconductors, oxides in solar cells, and ferroelectrics.  Example processing methods that we use include advanced pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with in-situ RHEED and XPS, and atmospheric spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD). When using PLD, we fabricate epitaxial films in the form of either conventional planar thin films architectures or heteroepitaxial nanocomposites.  Physical properties are measured by a wide range of electrical and optical characterisation methods.

We collaborate with several groups, including those in Cambridge and others around the world. We also work with industries in the U.K. and across the world.

Images: ‘Nano-comb’-like spontaneous phase ordering in cross-sectional view of the nanoscaffold SDC–STO film, as revealed by cross-sectional TEM image. Scale bar, 100 nm. (top) and temperature dependence of σfor the nanoscaffold SDC–STO film. For comparison, those for the plain SDC, YSZ and STO films that we grew are included. (bottom). Taken from Nature Communications, 6, 8588 (2015) listed to the left.

• S. Cho, C. Yun, Y. S. Kim, H. Wang, J. Jian, W. Zhang, J. Huang, X. Wang, H. Wang, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, "Strongly enhanced dielectric and energy storage properties in lead-free perovskite titanate thin films by alloying", Nano Energy (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2018.01.003
• S. Lee, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, "Research Update: Fast and tunable nanoionics in vertically aligned nanostructured films", APL Materials, Vol.5. (2017) DOI: 10.1063/1.4978550
• R. L. Z. Hoye, L. A. Lee, R. C. Kurchin, T. N. Huq, K. H. L. Zhang, M. Sponseller, L. Nienhaus, R. E. Brandt, J. Jean, J. A. Polizzotti, A. Kursumovic, M. G. Bawendi, V. Bulovic, V. Stevanovic, T. Buonassisi and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, Advanced Materials, Vol.29. (2017) DOI:10.1002/adma.201702176
• A. L. Sangle, S. Singh, J. Jian, S. R. Bajpe, H. Wang, N. Khare, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, "Very High Surface Area Mesoporous Thin Films of SrTiO3 Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition and Application to Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting", Nano Letters, Vol.16. (2016) DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b02487
• S. Cho, C. Yun, S. Tappertzhofen, A. Kursumovic, S. Lee, P. Lu, Q. Jia, M. Fan, J. Jian, H. Wang, S. Hofmann, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, "Self-assembled oxide films with tailored nanoscale ionic and electronic channels for controlled resistive switching", Nature Communications, Vol.7 (2016) DOI:10.1038/ncomms12373