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Matt Gebert: outreach champion

Congratulations to FLEET PhD student Matt Gebert, recognised for his dedication to science-outreach by the Monash Faculty of Science. Matt’s contributions to science outreach include running lab tours with Monash Tech School, demonstrating levitating superconductors and speaking at Monash University open day, teaching regional students via the Emerging Science Victoria program, coordinating PhD day, and in-class demos and talks, including …

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Research theme II virtual workshop

A two-day live-streamed workshop brought 30 researchers from across FLEET together last week, organised by ANU Research Fellows Maciej Pieczarka and Eliezer Estrecho. FLEET’s second research theme uses a quantum state known as a superfluid to achieve electrical current flow with minimal wasted dissipation of energy. In a superfluid, scattering is prohibited by quantum statistics, and all particles flow with …

Through the nanoscale looking glass:  FLEET researchers determine boson peak frequency in ultra-thin alumina

There’s more to glass than meets the eye. Glasses, which are disordered materials with no long-range chemical order, have some mysterious properties that have remained enigmatic for several decades. Amongst these are the anomalous vibrational states that contribute to the heat capacity at low temperature. Early researchers established that these states obey Bose-Einstein statistics, and the name stuck, so today …

Behind the scenes at Monash

Shooting for an all-online open day featuring FLEET’s material labs at Monash University’s New Horizons building, FLEET Research Fellow Dr Semonti Bhattacharyya with School of Physics and Astronomy Steve Morton. See the resulting video on Monash Physics youtube.

International collaboration unlocks vdW heterostructure

2D vdW TMD heterostructures studied Study correlates interface physics to device performance An India-Australian theoretical and experimental study for high-performance optoelectronics has been published in Nano Letters. The Monash University collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) designed and fabricated a heterostructure comprising two layered transition metal dichalcogenides (WSe2 and ReS2). Integrating new physics in vdW heterostructures Van-der-Waals …

ANSTO Scholarship for FLEET PhD Qile Li

Congratulations to FLEET PhD student Qile Li, whose excellent work in probing electronic structures of novel materials has been recognised by an award and scholarship from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE). At ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron, Qile Li uses Angle-Resolved Photo-Electron Spectroscopy (ARPES) to measure electronic properties of intrinsic magnetic topological insulators. Intrinsic magnetic topological insulators are …

Skilling researchers up for a post-pandemic career

Around 35 PhDs and other Early Career Researchers from FLEET and partner organisation the MacDiarmid Institute took a chance last week to learn how to take control of their future in these uncertain times, and to gain a better understanding of the job market (both in academia and industry) with a targeted, one-hour workshop from “the thesis whisperer”. A/Prof Inger …

Liquid metal synthesis for better piezoelectrics: atomically-thin tin-monosulfide

Record output power obtained from piezoelectric, atomically-thin material Remarkable synthesis advance for materials such as tin-monosulfide (group IV monochalcogenides), which are predicted to exhibit strong piezoelectricity Potential materials for future wearable electronics and other motion-powered, energy-harvesting devices RMIT-UNSW collaboration applies liquid-metal synthesis to piezoelectrics, advancing future flexible, wearable electronics, and biosensors drawing their power from the body’s movements. Materials such …

Spin-gapless semiconductors review: more candidates for next-generation low energy and high efficient spintronics

Spin-gapless semiconductors (SGSs) are a new class of zero-gap materials, with fully spin polarized electrons and holes. SGSs bridge the zero-gap materials and half-metals Material’s fascinating spin and charge states hold great potential for future spintronic technology. A University of Wollongong team has published an extensive review of spin-gapless semiconductors (SGSs) . Spin gapless semiconductors (SGSs) are a new class …

FLEETs Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh awarded prestigious prize

FLEET CI Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh (UNSW Sydney) has been awarded the prestigious 2020 Robert Boyle Prize for Analytical Science by The Royal Society of Chemistry. Prof Kalantar-zadeh is recognised for his significant influence across multiple fields of engineering. Contributions to society coming from his research across multiple disciplines include new innovative pollution sensors, transistors, medical devices and optical systems. Many …

Applying ‘magic angle’ twistronics to manipulate the flow of light

‘Twisted’ layers of 2D materials produce photonic topological transition at ‘magic’ rotation angles Principles of Moire-pattern bilayer graphene applied to 2D material photonics for first time Monash researchers are part of an international collaboration applying ‘twistronics’ concepts (the science of layering and twisting 2D materials to control their electrical properties) to manipulate the flow of light in extreme ways. The …

Cathy Foley recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

CSIRO Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley was recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours for her distinguished service to research science, to the advancement of women in physics and to professional scientific organisations. Prior to becoming Chief Scientist, as Deputy and Science Director of CSIRO Manufacturing, Dr Foley worked to engage Australian manufacturers and researchers to translate research into economic …

Liquid metals break down organic fuels into ultra-thin graphitic sheets

For the first time, FLEET researchers at UNSW, Sydney show the synthesis of ultra-thin graphitic materials at room temperature using organic fuels (which can be as simple as basic alcohols such as ethanol). Graphitic materials, such as graphene, are ultra-thin sheets of carbon compounds that are sought after materials with great promises for battery storage, solar cells, touch panels and …

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Explainer: Moire patterns in graphene and plastic

A recent FLEET homescience exercise explained how simple geometric patterns printed on transparency (‘overhead projector sheets’, to those of us old enough to remember such technology), and overlaid at varying angles, produced a combined ‘Moire’ pattern of varying dimensions. Two sheets of repeating squares produces a Moire pattern of larger squares. Two sheets of repeating triangles produces a Moire pattern …

What comes after CMOS? An expert discussion

A panel of experts featuring Dr Paolo Gargini (formerly Intel, head of several international semiconductor roadmaps), Prof Michelle Simmons (UNSW, Director. ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology) and Prof Michael Fuhrer (Monash Uni., Director of ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies.) and a guided discussion about the future of electronics beyond CMOS and the role semiconductors and other materials …