Coordinator: Prof. Pascal Gehring
Pascal Gehring is a Materials Scientist and FNRS-Research Associate/Assistant Professor at UCLouvain since 2020. His lab focuses on understanding the physics of mesoscopic and nanoscale functional devices. To this end, they study functionalities such as spin-to-charge conversion in topological materials or thermoelectric heat-to-charge conversion in single-molecule devices using cryogenic magnetotransport experiments and scanning probe microscopy.
Prof. Benoit Hackens
Benoit Hackens is a Physicist and FNRS-Senior Research Associate/Professor at UCLouvain since 2021. His group focuses on understanding electron transport in nanodevices and nanomaterials at the local scale, mainly using scanning probe techniques. Nanodevices are mainly fabricated from high mobility 2D carrier systems hosted in semiconductor heterostructures, or in 2D crystals, including graphene. Different themes are investigated related to transport properties of nanodevices, and in particular coherent and ballistic transport, quantized conductance, quantum Hall effect, with a particular focus on imaging and tuning electron transport in the different regimes.
Prof. Jean-Christophe Charlier
Jean-Christophe Charlier is a Physicist and Full Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique of UCLouvain since 2008. His main scientific interests are centred on theoretical condensed matter physics and nanosciences, covering the areas of ab initio electronic, structural and magnetic properties of nano-materials and (spin-dependent) quantum transport in reduced-dimensional solids such as nanotubes, graphene and new 2D materials. The research objective consists in explaining or predicting the properties of these nanostructures using first-principles theories and computational physics.
Prof. Francisco Molina-Lopez
Francisco Molina-Lopez is a Physicist/Electrical Engineer and Assistant Professor at KU Leuven since 2019. His research lab team is working on the design, fabrication and characterization of printed, organic/inorganic flexible electronics. Their vision is to develop new materials and processes to harvest and store energy from large-area and curved surfaces. They are also interested in developing sensors and actuators based on additive manufacturing. The outcome of their multidisciplinary research can be applied to open up new applications in autonomous and wearable systems for biomedicine & the IoT.
Prof. Margriet Van Bael
Prof. Lino da Costa Pereira
I am a member of the Quantum Solid State Physics research unit of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the KU Leuven. Together with a team of PhD students, postdocs, and collaborators, I study functional materials, such as semimetals, semiconductors and insulators for nanoelectronics and quantum applications. I am particularly interested in understanding the relation between atomic-scale structure (e.g. the position of a dopant atom in the lattice of a host semiconductor) and the resulting functional properties (e.g. electric, magnetic, topological, optical). This understanding allows us to control the functional properties of solid state systems at a quantum-mechanical level. The materials synthesis and modification are mostly based on ion implantation, in addition to thin film growth by molecular beam epitaxy. In addition to a wide range of in-house facilities and techniques such as ion beam analysis and scanning tunneling microscopy, a significant part of the experimental work is carried out in international large-scale facilities, such as ISOLDE at CERN and synchrotron facilities (ESRF, Elettra, PETRA III, etc.).
Prof. Alejandro Silhanek
Alejandro Silhanek is a Physicist and Professor at University of Liege since 2019. His group focuses on low temperature magnetic and electric measurements in particular on superconductors and ferromagnetic systems, layered 2D anisotropic compounds and complex oxides. The scientific activities of the group have been mainly within the field of experimental low dimensional physics, nanoscience and nanotechnology, magnetism, superconductivity, and quantum transport. Recent scientific activities include the targeted modification of material properties by controlled atom migration, the study of thermomagnetic instabilities in superconducting films by magneto-optical imaging and on-chip superconducting devices (SQUIDs, Josephson junctions, etc.).
Prof. Matthieu Verstraete
Matthieu Verstraete is a Physicist and Professor at University of Liege since 2017. His research group is specialized in the theoretical and numerical study of the electronic structure of materials at the nanoscale – for crystals, molecules, amorphous, and especially nanostructured systems. The electronic structure is fundamental to understanding all experimental properties, such as crystal structure, electrical resistivity, optical properties, or mechanical strength.
Dr. Bertrand Dupé
Prof. Clement Merckling