Improvements in basic knowledge and practical exploitation of their unique properties, has established electrical, magnetic and optical ceramics as one of the most important and fast developing areas in materials research. This resulted in a significant technology impact during the last several years. The increasing demand for even more refined or novel properties hardly to be competitively met by other materials is fuelling the interest of researchers for improved or new processing routes and deeper understanding of the fundamental materials science of these materials to meet requirements coming from a variety of advanced civilian and defence applications.
Materials with unusually high dielectric constant, with low loss and low temperature resonance coefficient at very high frequencies, lead-free piezoelectrics, multifunctional materials such as multiferroic heterostructures, colossal resistance manganites, and novel electro- and magneto- optical materials are but some examples of the ongoing developments in the area which massively makes use of the opportunities offered by nanoscience and nanotechnology, and by computational modelling and new theory.

Major focus will be on:

• Development of new and more efficient processes, better characterisation tools of bulk, crystalline, glassy and amorphous materials, thin films, multilayers, superlattices, nanomaterials, nanostructures, hybrid materials and metamaterials; advances in thin-film and related micro/ nano-fabrication techniques and “bottom-up” approaches that offer the potential for high-density integration of nanoscale devices
• Fundamental mechanisms, novel (multi)functional characteristics and behaviour of materials such as electronic structure, quantum effects, phase transitions , transport phenomena, defects, diffusion, domain structure and switching, grain boundary controlled mechanisms, nanosize effects, surfaces and interfaces, dielectric, piezoelectric, magnetic and optical properties, ageing and fatigue, reliability, fractals, modeling and simulation, etc.
• New developments in devices including high energy density capacitors, tunable dielectrics for microwave applications, piezoelectric composites, sensors and actuators, MEMS/NEMS, electro- and magneto-optical devices etc., and related integration technologies.

This Symposium intends to be an interdisciplinary forum that will bring together scientists and engineers involved in the various aspects of the fabrication, characterisation and modelling of electroceramics, review the latest developments and charter the future.

Session Topics

CH-1 Dielectrics and Microwave Materials

CH-2 Ferroelectrics, Piezoelectrics

CH-3 Magnetic Ceramics*

CH-4 Varistors and Thermistors

CH-5 Optical electro-optical and magneto-optical ceramics and devices

Focused Session CH-6 Multiferroics

* See also Symposium CI "Magnetic and Transport Properties of Oxides"

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT