Geoffrey Mwendwa
Multiferroic Rare-earth Composite
Thin Films
Geoffrey Mwendwa during his stay at EPFL in 2023
Discover his project and his journey
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Summary
Strong correlations of ferroic orders (ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, and ferrotoroidicity) at room temperature exhibit the potential to realize the next-generation technology, for example, for solid-state refrigeration, spintronics, and highefficiency solar cells. These correlations lead to multifunctional materials that host multiple coupled ferroic orders (socalled multiferroics). These are predicted to have high switching efficiency, low power dissipation, and high storage density among other high-end features.
This project seeks to induce multiple ferroic orders in rare-earth composites grown in thin-film format. We will fabricate terbium-based manganite thin films and study their basic physical properties and investigate them for the abovementioned technological applications.
Publications / Scientific news
15th African Laser Centre (ALC) Student Workshop 2024, STIAS (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study), University of Stellenbosch, from 18–20 November 2024.
ALC Workshop on Modern Aspects of Photonics, STIAS from 21–22 November 2024.
Southern Africa Powder Diffraction Conference 2023 (SPDC 2023), Midgard Country Estate, Okahandja, Namibia, 16 – 21 April 2023.