Invited Speaker：Prof. Matthias Wuttig

Introduction：

Matthias Wuttig is a full professor of physics at RWTH Aachen, where his research focus is the understanding and tailoring of materials with unique optical and electrical properties. He received a diploma in physics from the University of Cologne and a PhD degree from Forschungszentrum Jülich/RWTH Aachen. He is the head of I.Institute of Physics (IA), speaker of the Strategy Board of RWTH Aachen, and has served as dean of the faculty of science, mathematics, and computer sciences. He is the coordinator of the DFG funded Collaborative Research Centre "Nanoswitches" SFB917. His awards include an ERC Advanced Grant in 2013. He currently serves as the chairman of E\PCOS Committee, the most important annual conference in the field of phase change materials. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, review papers, or book chapters, including 11 of them published on Nature Materials and Science. The total SCI citation of these articles is over 13,000 and his h-index is 56. 

【Lecture Title】Phase Change Materials by Design: The Mystery of Resonance Bonding

Time: 10:10-12:00 am, June 6th, 2017 

Location:  New MSE Building, No. 01 Meeting Room

Abstract: Phase change media utilize a remarkable property portfolio including the ability to rapidly switch between the amorphous and crystalline state, which differ significantly in their properties. This material combination makes them very attractive for data storage applications in rewriteable optical data storage, where the pronounced difference of optical properties between the amorphous and crystalline state is used. This unconventional class of materials is also the basis of a storage concept to replace flash memory.  This talk will discuss the unique material properties, which characterize phase change materials. In particular, it will be shown that only a rather small group of materials utilizes resonant bonding, a particular flavour of covalent bonding, which can explain many of the characteristic features of phase change materials. This insight is employed to predict systematic property trends and to explore the limits in stoichiometry for such memory applications. It will be demonstrated how this concept can be used to tailor the electrical and thermal conductivity of phase change materials. Yet, the discoveries presented here also force us to revisit the concept of resonance bonding and bring back a history of vivid scientific disputes about ‘the nature of the chemical bond’.

 Welcome to attend the lecture!