The achievement Innovative approaches to controlled functional responses of multiferroics was chosen for the selection ‘Excellent in Science 2020’ promoted by Slovenian Research Agency. It is the result of collaboration of researchers from Electronic Ceramics Department (K5), Condensed Matter Physics Department (F5), Department for Nanostructured Materials (K7) at the Jožef Stefan Institute, National Institute of Chemistry and colleagues from Poland and US. The researchers developed innovative approaches for the control of electrical conductivity based on the control of the chemical composition and thermal treatment conditions of the bismuth ferrite and lead iron niobate-based ceramic materials. The research was conducted in the frame of the national project J2-9253 Multicaloric cooling and published in three high impact-factor journals, among others in Nature Communications.

1) A. Benčan et al. Nature Communications 2020 [COBISS.SI-ID 33296423]

2) U. Prah et al. J. Mat. Chem. C 2020 [COBISS.SI-ID 33157415]

3) U. Prah et al. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 2019 [COBISS.SI-ID 32459303]

Figure: (a) Piezo-response force microscopy and (b) conductive atomic force microscopy images of bismuth ferrite (after Nature Communications 2020 [COBISS.SI-ID 33296423])