Nanostructured Patterned Materials and Application Group

Contact: Dr. I. Zakia Rahman,

Dept. of Physics,

University of Limerick

E-mail: Zakia.Rahman@ul.ie

Tel. +353-61-202205

The Nanostructured Patterned Materials and Applications group within the Physics Department and Materials & Surface Science Institute (MSSI) is involved in investigation of template synthesis/self-assembly and the nano-imprint process for the fabrication of nano-patterned arrays of nanostructured magnetic and other functional materials and nanocomposites, their characterisation involving atomic and magnetic force (AFM/MFM), high resolution transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM and SEM), XRD, XPS, FIB/SIMS and a variety of magnetic, electrical and mechanical measurements as well as modelling of magnetic materials. The group is aiming towards application of the fabricated materials in the area of MEMS & NEMS, power converters and data storage and processing. Current research projects are: (a) Development of novel hybrid nanosystems using spinel and perovskite structured materials, (b) Rare earth doped transition metal nanomagnetic wires, (c) Multistage modelling using ab initio molecular dynamics and micromagnetics. Using electrodeposition and sputtering technique, the group fabricated [1] arrays of transition metal nanowires and performed simulation of micromagnetic calculation.

The group leader Dr I. Z. Rahman has more than 30 years research experience and established the research laboratory in 1989 at the University of Limerick. The group has carried out research by attracting funding from various local, national and international agencies. She has more than 161 publications and is a recognized expert on magnetic materials and an evaluator for funding organization for research projects, reviewer of journal articles, has worked as an industrial consultant, external examiner of PhD theses and supervised a number of PhD/Masters students and mentored research fellows.

Fig. 1. (top left) Magnetisation distributions in the x-y plane for a Co-based negative nanonetwork. (top right) Cross-section of Nickel nanowires inside NCA template (bottom) Three dimensional image of the using magnetic force microcopy on top of the Ni nanowire array.

[1] Rahman, I. Z., Boboc, A., Razeeb, K. M. and Rahman, M. A., 2005, J. Mag. Magn. Mat, 290-291, 246-249(2005).

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