Stephan Grill
MPI-CBG Dresden, Germany
Abstract
One of the most remarkable examples of self-organized structure formation is the development of a complex organism from a single fertilized egg. With the identification of molecules that participate in this process of morphogenesis, attention has now turned to capturing the physical principles that govern the emergence of biological form.
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What are the physical laws that govern the dynamics and the formation of structure in living matter? Much of the force generation that drives morphogenesis stems from the actomyosin cortical layer of cells just underneath the cell surface, which endows the surface with the ability to generate active stresses and active torques that can drive reshaping. We combine theory and experiment and investigate how the actomyosin cell surface deforms and how it supports chiral rotations, and how these events together participate in chiral morphogenesis and the establishment of a left-right principal body axis in both the nematode worm and the Japanese quail.
Bio
Stephan Grill is a director at MPI-CBG Dresden. He was born in 1974 in Heidelberg and studied physics at the University of Heidelberg.
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He received his PhD from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg and the University of Munich. He did his postdoctoral work first at MPI-CBG from 2002 to 2003, and then continued at the University of Berkeley, USA, as a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow until 2005. Grill returned to Dresden in 2006, where he worked jointly at MPI-CBG and the Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden as a junior research group leader. He earned his habilitation in Theoretical Physics from the University of Leipzig in 2013 and was a Professor of Biophysics at the Biotechnology Center of the Technische Universität Dresden from 2013 to 2019. He was an editor of the journal Physical Review Letters from 2014 to 2019. He was founding speaker of the new Cluster of Excellence “Physics of Life” at the TU Dresden from 2018 to 2021 and became a director at the MPI-CBG in October 2018 where he and his group work to reveal physical concepts and principles that underlie the dynamic self-organization of living matter. He has received a number of awards including the 2011 Paul Ehrlich- und Ludwig Darmstaedter-Nachwuchspreis and the 2015 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics.
Professor Guido Schmitz
Institute of Materials Science, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Abstract
Atom probe tomography is a method of microscopic analysis that is already well-established in the study of hard materials. It is based on controlled field desorption and stands out by combining single-atom sensitivity with a 3D volume reconstruction.
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Particular strongholds are the accurate measurement of chemical segregation to grain boundaries and interfaces in nanostructured matter.
Our recent efforts push forward volume reconstruction methods, the quantum mechanics simulation of the evaporation process and the statistical understanding of chemical fluctuations which even enables a direct measurement of Gibbs energy. We desire to break the materials limitations towards the analysis of softmatter and polymeric materials. Meanwhile, nanometric needles are produced from frozen liquids, even from pure water. Studies are performed with aqueous solutions, liquids of short alkanes, liquid crystals and self-assembling monolayers. The talk discusses the field desorption of complex materials and presents time of flight mass spectra and their dependence on field or laser intensity. The complex mechanisms of field desorption from frozen water surfaces and molecular organic liquids are further elucidated by DFT and Monte-Carlo simulation. By proper evaluating evaporation probabilities and event correlations, even insight in bonding strength and the stability of molecules in strong electrical fields may be provided.
Bio
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Guido Schmitz studied physics and theology at the Universities of Freiburg and Göttingen in Germany.
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He graduated in material physics from the University of Göttingen in the year 1994. After periods as Assistant Professor in Göttingen and a research fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was appointed in 2002 as Full Professor in Materials Physics at the University of Münster, Germany. In 2012, he accepted a call to the University of Stuttgart, to chair the Department of Materials Physics.
His scientific work is focused on the understanding of solid-state reactions in nanostructured materials and devices, at the cutting edge of microscopy. Atomic transport along grain boundaries and triple junctions, structure and stability of interfaces, or the impact of elastic stress are physical phenomena to be pointed out. From the viewpoint of application, solder interconnects, thin film batteries and hydrogen storage should be named. His research team is well known for instrumental and computational developments of the atom probe tomography, an exciting nanoanalytical tool of outstanding resolution and single atom sensitivity.
Prof. Schmitz received the Werner Köster award of the German Materials Society, holds an honorary doctor grade of the National University in Cherkasy, Ukraine, and is an appointed Fellow of the International Field Emission Society. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Materials Science.
Dr. Mark Biesinger
Surface Science Western, Western University, London ON, Canada
Department of Chemistry, Western University, London ON, Canada
Abstract
Chemical state X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis of first row transition metals and their oxides and hydroxides is challenging due to the complexity of the 2p spectra resulting from peak asymmetries, complex multiplet splitting, shake-up and plasmon loss structure, and uncertain, overlapping binding energies.
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Our work has shown that all the values of the spectral fitting parameters for each specific species, i.e. binding energy (eV), full width at half maximum (FWHM) value (eV) for each pass energy, spin-orbit splitting values and asymmetric peak shape fitting parameters, are not all normally provided in the literature and databases, and are necessary for reproducible, quantitative chemical state analysis.
We have worked toward a consistent, practical, and effective approach to curve fitting based on a combination of 1) standard spectra from quality reference samples, 2) a survey of appropriate literature databases and/or a compilation of literature references, 3) specific literature references where fitting procedures are available and 4) theoretical fittings, where available, of multiplet split reference spectra. The use of well characterized standard samples and fitting of the entire peak shape has been shown to increase our ability to accurately identify and (semi) quantify the various species present in mixed oxide/hydroxide systems [1,2]. Additional chemical information has also been elucidated from Auger parameters and by using Wagner plots for compounds of Ni, Cu, Ga, In, Cd, and Zn. The unique spectral shapes of the LMM Auger peaks for these transition metals, particularly for Cu [3], as well as for Zn, In and Cd, have also been shown to be of use for chemical speciation. These methods have been shown to be effective in a wide variety of applications. Additionally, a recent assessment [4] of available charge corrections procedures for insulating samples will also be shown including recent work on defining the nature of adventitious carbon and improving its merit for charge correction usage [5].
Selected references
Bio
Dr. Mark C. Biesinger is an adjunct research professor and the director of Surface Science Western (Western University, London ON), Canada’s leading surface analysis and materials characterization facility.
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He is an internationally recognized expert in X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). He has several seminal and highly cited publications in the field which focus on improvements in both sample analysis and data interpretation techniques, particularly in the analysis of transition metals. Dr. Biesinger is also the author of the X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Reference Pages (xpsfitting.com), a repository of techniques, tips and reference materials designed to help XPS users worldwide.
Dr. Ute Cappel
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Sweden
Abstract
Gaining atomic level understanding of materials properties as well as processes in devices is crucial for the development of applications relying on these materials. This talk will address how we use photoelectron spectroscopy to gain fundamental insights into materials for solar cells.
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The direct conversion of sunlight to electricity (photovoltaics) is expected to play a significant role in the future electricity supply due to the great potential of solar energy as a renewable source. To be used on a larger scale, future solar cell technologies must use abundant materials, be inexpensive to produce and stable under device operation.
In the last years, much research has focused on developing new solar cells made from organic or hybrid materials, which can be fabricated by cheap methods. This includes solar cells with a hybrid organic inorganic perovskite as the active layer in the solar cell, which have now reached power conversion efficiencies of more than 25%. In a typical solar cell, the perovskite layer is sandwiched between two selective contacts, one for holes and one for electrons.
The future success of these developments crucially depends on understanding the details charge separation, charge transport and charge recombination at the interfaces between the different layers in a solar cell as well as what parameters limit solar cell stability. X-ray based techniques such as photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) are powerful tools for obtaining electronic structure information of materials at an atomic level. By varying the photon energy from soft to hard X-rays, photoelectron spectroscopy can be used for non-destructive depth profiling of the solar cell interfaces giving information about the energy alignment and chemical structure and composition at the interface. Furthermore, time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to investigate dynamics within devices relating to charge transport and material stability.
In this presentation, I will discuss how we have used photoelectron spectroscopy to gain fundamental insights into materials for solar cells by carrying out investigations ranging from single crystal model systems to real devices and moving from static to dynamic, time-resolved measurements.
Bio
Dr. Ute Cappel is a fellow of the Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability (WISE) and an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University.
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She received her PhD degree in Chemistry at Uppsala University in 2011 on the characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells. From 2017–2023, she was Assistant/Associate Professor at KTH in Stockholm, where she started her research group focusing on hybrid solar cells. In her research, she uses (time-resolved) photoelectron spectroscopy as the main tool for gaining insight into chemical and electronic structure of surfaces and interfaces and into dynamics of energy-conversion processes.
Sweden Meetx AB is the conference bureau handling the conference secretariat for the ECASIA 2024 conference.
E-mail: ecasia2024@meetx.se
Phone: +46 31 708 86 90
Registration opens: January 2024
Abstract submission deadline – April 5, 2024
Poster submission deadline – May 20, 2024
Early Bird Registration deadline – April 30, 2024
Conference Dates: 9-14 June 2024
