Materials Discovery Laboratory
Facility
The Materials Discovery Lab is a synthesis and crystal growth facility based in the Department of Materials (D-MATL), at ETH Zurich. The facility stems from a joint initiative between D-MATL and the external page Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), with the aim to strengthen the collaboration and exchange of students between ETH Zurich and PSI. The Materials Discovery Lab actively trains undergraduate and graduate students in advanced crystal growth and investigation methods through projects.
The Materials Discovery Lab kicked off in 2021 with the hiring of Dr. Monica Ciomaga Hatnean as the Lab manager and PSI research scientist. The facility benefited from start-up funding from the ETH Board and PSI for equipment and staff. The commissioning of the first experimental equipment started in 2023.
The research of the Materials Discovery Lab targets the broader areas of Materials Science, Solid State Chemistry and Condensed Matter Physics, and focuses on the study of materials that exhibit exotic states of matter (e.g., topological insulators, superconductors, skyrmion lattices), frustrated magnetism (e.g., pyrochlores, garnets), multiferroic, ferroelectric and magnetoelectric properties, as well as 2D materials.
The structural and physical properties of the materials prepared at the Materials Discovery Lab is investigated using a wide range of techniques, including powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, magnetisation, thermodynamic and transport measurements, which are available in D-MATL, as well as synchrotron, neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy techniques available at large scale facilities.
The research work carried out at the Materials Discovery Lab benefits from continuos funding from D-MATL and PSI for equipment and staff. Other sources of financial support include projects funded by the external page Swiss Nanoscience Institute (2023-2026) and the external page PSI Research Grant (2023-2025).
People
Infrastructure
The infrastructure available in the Materials Discovery Lab enables the preparation of polycrystalline and single crystal samples of a wide range of inorganic compounds, such as oxides, borides, chalcogenides, oxichalcogenides and intermetallics.
The associated suite of synthesis and crystal growth techniques includes solid-state reaction methods for polycrystalline samples, and various techniques (floating zone, flux, freeze gradient Bridgman, chemical vapour transport and low temperature evaporation) for single crystal samples grown from the melt, solution or vapour phase.
If you would like to know more about the sample prepared at the Materials Discovery Lab that may be available for collaborative projects, please do not hesitate to contact us. In addition, we also encourage you to contact us if you would like to collaborate to synthesise crystals of various materials using the infrastructure available Materials Discovery Lab.
Useful Links
News and Highlights
August 2024
Dr. Monica Ciomaga Hatnean, Dr. Dariusz Jakub Gawryluk (PSI), Dr. Ekaterina Pomjakushina (PSI), and Dr. Enrico Giannini (UNIGE) had the pleasure to organize the external page Workshop on Tips and Tricks for the Crystal Growth of Inorganic Materials, on the 27th-28th of August 2024, at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
We were absolutely thrilled to welcome 75 participants from 9 different countries including: the Czech Republic; France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. We had 7 wonderful keynote talks by great specialists in the field of solid state chemistry, the 11 contributed talks, which were given mainly by young scientists, and 28 fantastic posters. The workshop has been possible thanks to our generous sponsors: the external page Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the external page Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the external page MaNEP Switzerland Network, the external page Swiss Neutron Scattering Society (SGN/SSDN), and the external page Swiss Society for Crystallography (SGK/SSCr). We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the scientific committee and all participants that helped make this event a successful one.
The organizing committee hope to see you all and many more at the next edition of the Workshop on Tips and Tricks for the Crystal Growth of Inorganic Materials which will take place in Geneva, in 2027.
July 2024
Fabien Holzmann completed his Bachelor Thesis on the “Crystal growth and characterization of Nd2SiO5 and Pr2SiO5"
March 2024
Short video from a crystal growth of a Dy2SiO5 boule, performed using the laser-diode-heated floating zone furnace
For more details see Crystals 2023, 13(12), 1687; external page DOI:10.3390/cryst13121687
March 2023
Computer control interface of one of the first crystal growths carried out using the new laser-diode-heated floating zone furnace
February 2023
Commissioning of a laser-diode-heated floating zone furnace
January 2023
Commissioning of the first experimental equipment
December 2022
Completion of the refurbishment of the laboratory space