Scientist in Charge: Dr. Teresa Puig

Expertise and experience

ICMAB is a public research institute integrated in the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC) involved in new materials programs and with a wide interdisciplinary basis. The Superconducting Materials and its Applications Group (SuMAG) has at present 9 permanent staff scientists and technicians and 12 PhD students and 3 postdocs working on projects related to superconducting materials processing, characterisation and applications (www.icmab.es). The activities of the group are integrated in the broader Catalan network Center of Reference on Advanced Materials for Energy (CeRMAE). SuMAG has been involved in the last 15 years in basic and applied superconductivity research activities through many national and European research projects related to bulk processing, flux pinning properties in relation to microstructure, materials integration in power devices and chemical processing and properties of coated conductors. Chemical solution deposition (CSD) of superconducting films and buffer layers and nano-structuring by CSD has recently become the dominating activity of the group. The group has also a wide knowledge of vortex pinning and granularity issues in HTS. SuMAG has supervised 9 PhD theses in the last 5 years and 12 are presently running. The training capability of the group has been recognized at the European level by being a host site in the Marie Curie program, "Barcelona Superconducting and Magnetic Oxides Training Site", SUMO-TS. This program, and the active participation of the group in TMR networks in the last 5 years has allowed the admittance of a considerable amount of foreign students. The members of SuMAG are actively teaching in the Materials Science Master of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. SuMAG has a long tradition in participating and collaborating in EU strategies. Recent EU projects include FP5 and FP6 projects and TMR networks (BYFAULT, SUPERCURRENTS, SUPERMACHINES, SOLSULET and HIPERCHEM where ICMAB was/is the co-ordinator, SUPER3C, SUMO-TS, FAME, SUPERLIFE, SCENET). Collaborators include 35 international institutions (from 13 different countries).

Role in the project

ICMAB will mostly participate in the scientific objectives including introduction of nano-scale defects in thin films and the correlation between nano-structural and electrical pinning properties. These objectives will be achieved by using chemical processing routes (CSD) with several nano-structuring strategies using a “bottom-up” approach. The group will also actively contribute to the structural characterization at the nano-scale and to the characterization and modelling of superconducting properties (vortex pinning and granularity). ICMAB will be the group responsible for the organization of a TEM training course in the framework of NESPA. Dr. Teresa Puig will be the Training Manager of the network.

Key personnel involved

Prof. Xavier Obradors – responsible for MOD-TFA process. He is the group leader and has co-ordinated many national projects and participated in several European projects. He has coordinated the project SOLSULET and is presently coordinating the HIPERCHEM project. Dr. Teresa Puig  – responsible for nanotemplating. She will be the group leader in NESPA and as Training Manager responsible for coordinating and monitoring the training activities in the network. She has been project leader in several National projects in the Materials Science Program, she is the SUMAG group leader in HIPERCHEM and the task leader of WP3·also in HIPERCHEM. Dr. Felip Sandiumenge  - responsible for structural characterization by TEM. Dr. S. Ricart  and Dr. N. Mestres  –responsible for nano-particles and nano-rods synthesis by chemical routes. Dr. A. Pomar - responsible for superconducting characterization.