The project leader: Doc. Dr.Sc. Igor Đerđ

Leading Organization:

• Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, www.irb.hr

Partner organization:

• Gordana Dukovic, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, 215 UCB Boulder, CO 80309, USA, http://chem.colorado.edu/dukovicgroup/
• Doc. Dr. sc. Željko Skoko, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Physics, Bijenička 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, http://www.pmf.unizg.hr/phy
• Prof. Dr. Zvonko Jagličić, Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics, Jadranska 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, http://www.imfm.si

Duration of the project : 24 months

Financing: 1.376.805,00 HRK

Various forms of multiferroic compounds (powder, dense ceramics, thin films) have attracted a high interest in both fundamental and applied research owing to their application possibilities. They enable the change of the magnetic ground state with voltage only (without loss of energy) and reading of the state using spintronic microdevices. Moreover, the application of multiferroics for sensors, actuators and other signal manipulations is foreseen. The proposed research project deals with the preparation, thorough structural analysis, and physico-chemical characterization of Te-based complex metal oxides with particular ferroic or multiferroic properties. The desired compounds will be prepared in both single-crystalline and polycrystalline forms with a specific aim for the latter to be produced as a nanosized material. In order to do that, widely applied aqueous sol-gel route suitable for the synthesis of single-crystalline materials, and recently promoted nonaqueous sol-gel route convenient for nanosized polycrystalline materials will be employed. A special attention in the materials design will be given to the thin film preparation by using DC magnetron sputtering. The project itself comprises detailed studies of peculiarities of the chemical composition, atomic and magnetic structures, structural phase transitions, physico-chemical properties, and their interrelationships. One of the main aims of the project is the development of empirical criteria for the search and preparation of new advanced multiferroic materials.