Kaveh Ahadi
Ohio State University, OH·Materials Science
Computers use more and more energy, and new materials could make memory, sensors and quantum devices far more efficient. Two kinds of oxide crystals are useful here.
- Fields
Materials Science
Physics
Engineering
- Topics
ferroelectrics
thin films
oxide electronics
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2030
What they work on
- Grow potassium tantalate niobate thin films with controlled composition and epitaxial strain by molecular beam epitaxy to map how strain and niobium content control ferroelectricity.
- Quantify atomic off-centering, oxygen octahedral distortions and polar nano-regions with atomic-resolution electron microscopy and ptychography, and link them to piezoresponse and capacitor measurements.
- Test whether displacive or order-disorder mechanisms govern polarization switching and phase stability in strained potassium tantalate niobate films.
- Grow and characterize high-quality KTaO3 heterostructures for collaborators to build Josephson junctions and kinetic inductors along different crystal directions to probe anisotropic two-dimensional superconductivity.
- Explore electric-field gating of KTaO3 superconductivity as an initial test of its suitability as a low-noise quantum information platform.
More about the research
Ferroelectrics hold a built-in separation of charge that an electric field can flip, which takes little energy. Superconductors carry current with no resistance. The lab grows ultrathin crystal films of potassium tantalate (KTaO3) and related oxides, atomic layer by atomic layer. It then studies how the arrangement of atoms in these films controls their electrical behavior.
Why it matters
Design rules for strain-tuned ferroelectric films could guide energy-efficient memory, sensors and low-power logic. That would help address the rising energy demand of computing and support semiconductor manufacturing. Assessing KTaO3 superconductors could identify a low-noise material for building quantum information hardware.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Megan Holtz
Colorado School of Mines, CO·Materials Science·Early-career
Control symmetry and symmetry-breaking in the polar ordering of hexagonal ABO3 oxides using atomically precise molecular beam epitaxy, aiming to stabilize new ferroelectric functions and emergent phenomena.
Daniel Agterberg
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI·Physics
Develop a comprehensive theory of pseudospin in crystals with non-symmorphic symmetry, where the usual spin-1/2 behavior breaks down, and work out its consequences for Cooper pairing and magnetic ordering.
Christian Binek
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Physics
Engineer interfaces in oxide and van der Waals layered stacks to control magnetic and electric order, defects and spin textures, aiming at memristive devices and neuromorphic, brain-inspired computing.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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