Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research

The IFW Dresden is devoted to fundamental and applied research and development, with particular emphasis on the fields of solid state and materials research. The The research programme is focused on functional materials, both in bulk and thin films. In an interdisciplinary approach it combines fundamental research in physics, chemistry and material science with the specific needs of technological application.

As a member in the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (WGL) the IFW Dresden funded to equally by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Saxony. The Institute has presently about 400 staff members, among them about 170 are financed from project money of public and industrial sources. This includes also about 70 PhD students and about 20 trainees.

The Institute´s mission

• fundamental and applied research and development, with particular emphasis on the fields of solid state and materials research
  
• training of young scientists and staff trained in technology
  
• supply of both public institutions as well as companies with the Institute´s R&D know-how and experience
  
• collaboration with the universities and other higher education establishments
  
• expert advice to government and other decision-making bodies

The research activities at the IFW Dresden are based upon five Research Areas

Superconductivity & superconductors

The activities on superconductivity and superconducting materials cover the range from the physical and chemical fundamentals of superconductivity to the development of technical materials for application in the area of electrical engineering and the construction of prototypes for passive magnetic bearings, contact-less magnetically levitated linear transport systems and superconducting magnets.
As fundamental aspects, we investigated the electronic structure and the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism of intermetallic borocarbides, prepared both as single-crystalline massive material or as thin films. These projects are an essential part of the DFG-SFB 463 "Seltenerd-Übergangsmetall-Verbindungen: Struktur, Magnetismus und Transport", where we closely cooperated with the Technical University and the Max-Planck-Institutes at Dresden. Considering different fields of applications, we continued the development of BSCCO/Ag tapes, YBCO tapes and melt-textured YBCO bulk material, where the properties could be further improved.

Magnetism and magnetic materials

The activities in this research area combine work on fundamental physical properties with the development of magnetic materials and systems. They reach from intrinsic magnetic properties, which are theoretically and experimentally investigated, to the preparation and characterization of hard and soft magnetic materials and to the development of materials showing the giant or the colossal magnetorestistance (GMR, CMR) effect, which should be used for spinfunctional sensors, MRAMs and spin transistors. These activities were strongly supported by the DFG research programs SFB 463 "Seltenerd-Übergangsmetall-Verbindungen: Struktur, Magnetismus und Transport" and SFB 422 "Strukturbildung und Eigenschaften in Grenzschichten" and by the BMBF pilot project "Magnetoelectronics".

Conjugated carbon systems

The research area comprises theoretical work and simulations, the preparation, the characterization, and the application of new materials based on conjugated carbon systems. At present the activities are focused on fullerenes, nanotubes, carbon nanotubes and conjugated polymers and oligomers. These materials have a high technological potential reaching from superconductors to semiconductors.

In the field of conjugated polymers, new systems are prepared. In addition, the electrical and magnetic properties and the nature of charge charriers and excited states are studied. Furthermore, the work is focused on the investigation of interfaces in organic devices such as organic light emitting diodes and organic transistors.

In the topical field fullerenes the work is related to doped systems and in particular to endohedral fullerenes. Various new systems could be prepared and the valency of the ions enclosed in the fullerene cage could be determined.

Finally, the field of carbon nanotubes is rapidly growing. Theoretical work has been performed on the growth of carbon nanostructures. Multiwall nanotubes have been prepared by CVD for investigations of H2 storage in these systems. In addition, single wall nanotubes were prepared using Laser evaporation. At present, the carbon nanotubes prepared in the institute are also used for the development of future nanoscaled electronic devices.

Metastable alloys

In the research area "Metastable Alloys" we investigate nanoscale materials, amorphous metals and metastable intermetallic phases, which are prepared under non-equilibrium conditions (casting, rapid quenching and mechanical alloying).

The activities for the systematic characterisation of the phase formation under non-equilibrium conditions are combined with investigations of the forming microstructures and the correlated mechanical, magnetic or electrochemical properties. Both model systems for basic research and materials with a high technological potential are under consideration.

Thin film systems for electronics

This research area is focused on problems of layer materials in electronics. Important topics within this research area are theoretical and experimental studies of the electronic structure of thin layers, the preparation of textured diamond layers, as well as the characterisation of microacoustic transducer materials and ferroelectric thin films. In the field of electronic structure studies the work was concentrated to the study of local field effects in diamond. Furthermore, electronic excitations in the spin-ladder compounds Na1-xCaxV2O5 have been measured. Finally, from the investigation of the metal-insulator transition in amorphous Si1-xNix evidence for Mott´s minimum metallic conductivity was derived.

In the research area of metallic nanostructures a novel technique for parallel nanolithography has been developed. Using this methods arrays of metallic nanostructures could be fabricated.
Furthermore this research area includes two IFW-Projects:

The project "Electromigration" concentrates on the influence of microstructure and texture on electromigration in thin interconnect lines of Al and Cu. In order to understand the interaction between electromigration processes and the mechanical stress behaviour of interconnects, we investigate both the dislocation accumulation and the plasticity in Cu thin films.

In the project "Thermoelectrics" the focus was on the preparation of epitaxial Rhenium silicide films and the determination of their thermoelectric properties. Further work was devoted to bandstructure calculations and calculations of the thermoelectronic properties of low gap transition metal silicides and germanides.

Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research
Helmholtzstraße 20
01069 Dresden
Tel: +49 (0)351 / 46 59 - 0
Fax: +49 (0)51 / 46 59 - 540
E-Mail: postmaster@ifw-dresden.de

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Further Information: www.ifw-dresden.de/