The Thin Films and Interfaces Group

Yi Hu

Thin films are nowadays utilized in many applications, ranging from semiconductor devices to optical coatings and are even present in pharmaceuticals (polymers). This wide-spread application of films with thicknesses from atomic monolayers to microns is due to the developments of thin film deposition techniques. Thin films are also important for studies of materials with new and unique properties due to the possibility of tuning their crystallographic and morphological properties. The thin film approach, i.e. the presence of interfaces (to a substrate or the film surface) adds more degrees of freedom for influencing the properties of materials, e.g. by lattice strain or surface functionalization. For these fundamental studies of material properties large research facilities such as synchrotron radiation or neutron spallation sources are one of the keys that the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) provides.

TL_Chichkov

Julius Springer Price 2024

Prof. Thomas Lippert, Editor in Chief at Applied Physics A, awards Prof. Boris Chichkov the 2024 Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics. 

Lippert 2022

Appointment of Thomas Lippert as new head of the Laboratory for Multiscale Materials Experiments (LMX)

Starting 1. December 2022, Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Lippert will be the new head of the Laboratory for Multiscale Materials Experiments (LMX). He follows Prof. Dr. Laura Heyderman, our first laboratory head who successfully formed and established the LMX in the PSI landscape as a Centre of Materials.

tecday_2022-45_jan

TFI goes TecDays

In July 2022, two PhDs of our Thin Films and Interfaces (TFI) Group offered a practical teaching module to pupils at the Kantonsschule Stadelhofen as part of the Swiss TecDays. These are one-day events at Swiss grammar schools, organized by the Schweizerische Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften (SATW), to support and strengthen technology education at schools. By bringing together pupils and experts from industry, universities, or research institutions, TecDays aims to raise an early awareness for technology and science.

ablation etc

LMX SEMINAR
Date:  Friday 20 December 2024, 13:00 
Speaker:  Marisa Medarde  
Room: OFLG/402 

TFI SEMINAR 
Date:  Monday 6 January 2025, 16:00 
Title: TBA 
Speaker:  Timo Piecuch  
Room: OFLG/402

TFI SEMINAR
Date: Monday 13 January, 2025, 16:00 
Literatur meeting 
Speakers:   Nick Shepelin & Pizza        
Room: OFLG/401

TFI SEMINAR 
Date:  Monday 20 January 2025, 16:00 
Title: TBA 
Speaker:  Xiaofeng Shen  
Room: OFLG/402

September 2024

iWOE-30 2024 

International Workshop on Oxide Electronics
September 29.-2.October 2024 , Darmstadt, Germany
More Information

August 2024

International Mass Spectrometry Conference 2024 

Aug. 17-23, 2024
Melbourne, Australia
More Information will be provided here

Highlights_2
Huang et al

Surface oxidation/spin state determines oxygen evolution reaction activity of cobalt-based catalysts in acidic environment

Co-based catalysts are promising candidates to replace Ir/Ru-based oxides for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysis in an acidic environment. However, both the reaction mechanism and the active species under acidic conditions remain unclear. In this study, by combining surface-sensitive soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy characterization with electrochemical analysis, we discover that the acidic OER activity of Co-based catalysts are determined by their surface oxidation/spin state. 

A practical guide to pulsed laser deposition

A practical guide to pulsed laser deposition

Nanoscale thin films are widely implemented across a plethora of technological and scientific areas, and form the basis for many advancements that have driven human progress, owing to the high degree of functional tunability based on the chemical composition. Pulsed laser deposition is one of the multiple physical vapour deposition routes to fabricate thin films, employing laser energy to eject material from a target in the form of a plasma ...

TL_Ishihara

Special interview with Prof. Thomas Lippert and Prof. Tatsumi Ishihara

Special interview with Prof. Thomas Lippert (PSI and Principle Investigator at I2CNER, Kyushu University) and Prof. Tatsumi Ishihara (Associate Director I2CNER, Kyushu University) on Current and Future Energy Research and Development in Europe: Perspectives from Switzerland, Germany and Japan. The interview is being published in the August 2017 issue of the Energy Outlook of the International Institut for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, I2CNER.

Student projects at the Thin Films and Interfaces Group

Most of the time we have student projects related to the work we do. Just talk to us if you are interested in something we are working on not advertised on our pages.

Currently, we are looking for a Semester or Master Student on the topic of ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs).

If anyone is interested, please contact Prof. Dr. Thomas Lippert (thomas.lippert@psi.ch) or Dr Nikita Shepelin (nikita.shepelin@psi.ch).

PhD projects at the Thin Films and Interfaces Group

At present, we have no open PhD positions available. Other open positions are always published on the PSI Open Positions page.

Think_twice

Thin Films and Interfaces Group 
Paul Scherrer Institute PSI
5232 Villigen PSI 
Switzerland