Selected results of department 12

Phase-field simulations demonstrate that the polarization order-parameter field in the Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire model of rhombohedral ferroelectric BaTiO₃ allows for an interesting linear defect, stable under simple periodic boundary conditions. This linear defect, here called the Ising line, can be described as an about 2-nm-thick intrinsic paraelectric nanorod acting as a highly mobile borderline between finite portions of Bloch-like domain walls of opposite helicity. The whole text »

The ultra-broadband dielectric spectroscopy is particularly useful for studying dielectric–conductor nanocomposites, particularly near the electrical percolation threshold. Theoretically, we have studied the spectra of effective dielectric response of such composites using several models within the effective medium approximation [1]. The whole text »

Time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy provides a useful insight into charge carrier motion in nanostructured semiconductors: it provides a contact-free access to local response of charge carriers inside nanostructures averaged over macroscopic volume of a sample. This is a very pertinent quantity for many applications of disordered materials which still have a larger potential than perfectly aligned nanostructures.

For the first time a tilt of molecules around the gold nanoparticles or their clusters has been observed in the liquid crystalline smectic A phase. We have shown the tilt is a consequence of interaction of the molecules with the surface of nanoparticle leading to a local smectic A-smectic C transition. Nanoparticles attracted to edge dislocations enable to visualize them under an optical polarizing microscope. The whole text »