Hans Christen

Director, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Abstract

One of the dreams of nanoscience is the ability to predict the function of a nanostructure based on the known position of each atom, and to create such nanostructures with atomic precision. While we are far from having realized this dream, advances in multiple techniques indicate that true breakthroughs will be made in the near future. In particular, functional imaging methods are now revealing not only the position, but also the function, of individual atoms. At the same time computational capabilities have advanced to a point of realistically capturing the collective behavior of large numbers of atoms. In addition, fabrication techniques are being developed that make it possible to manipulate and position individual atoms in three dimensions.  In this presentation, I will illustrate some examples of recent work being performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) – a multidisciplinary user facility supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science that provides a broad research community access to cutting-edge instrumentation and expertise free of charge. Special emphasis of this overview will be on imaging approaches, connections to computation and data analytics, as well as novel three-dimensional fabrication techniques.

 Biography

Hans Christen obtained his PhD from the EPF-Lausanne, Switzerland, for work performed on ferroelectric oxides at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory. After a postdoctoral fellowship at ORNL and an appointment at a start-up company, he joined ORNL in 2000 to perform work on epitaxial layers and interfacial effects in ferroelectric and magnetic complex oxides. Dr. Christen has authored over 170 peer reviewed publications and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He became Director of CNMS in January 2014.