Research Interests
Scientific interests of our research group concern materials science and solid-state chemistry of transition-metal oxides, including ferroelectrics, ferromagnets, conductors, batteries, etc. We focus on the fundamental chemistry and physics of these “functional oxides” and the search for new materials with new functionalities. The material synthesis activities include high-pressure synthesis, atomic-level controlled epitaxial thin-film growth, and topochemical oxidation/reduction modifications of the compounds, in addition to ordinary solid-state reaction synthesis. We are interested in determining crystal and magnetic structures and measuring properties of magnetism and electron transport, and is interested in control of the materials structure-property relationships.
Our recent research focuses on new compounds containing unusually high-valence cations such as Fe4+. We found the new A-site ordered perovskite oxide LaCu3Fe4O12 showing temperature-induced intersite charge transfer, which also induces large “negative thermal expansion” (Nature 2009), and the quadruple perovskite CaCu3Fe2Re2O12 with spin-polarized conduction carriers (Nature Comms. 2014).