Nanoscale Imaging of Polarization and Ion Distributions in Functional Materials
Ions form the fundamental building blocks of most ceramic materials, where positive and negative ions are arranged as neighbors, primarily bonded through ionic interactions at the atomic scale. Additionally, certain polymeric and semiconductor materials contain mobile ions capable of diffusing in and out of the material matrix. In ferroelectric materials, polarization charges are typically compensated by an equal amount of oppositely charged surface screening charges under ambient conditions. Therefore, visualizing the spatial distribution, charge state, and dynamics of both ions and polarization is critical for advancing our understanding of the electrochemical properties of functional materials.
Here, I will introduce our recent research on advanced imaging techniques for probing ferroelectric polarization. We employ contrast mechanisms such as piezoelectric strain, screening charges, and friction coefficients as markers to visualize polarization at the nanoscale. I will also discuss how these techniques contribute to the development of energy harvesting devices and improvements in chemical mechanical polishing processes. Furthermore, I will present our work on imaging ionic species and charged defects using markers like electrochemical strain and local electric fields to map ion distributions. Finally, I will illustrate how imaging ion and electron conduction pathways provides insights into the nanoscale behavior and performance of battery materials.
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- Co-sponsored by Yi Li
- Starts 22 September 2025 05:00 AM UTC
- Ends 24 September 2025 03:02 PM UTC
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Speakers
Prof. Seungbum Hong of Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, 34141, Korea
Nanoscale Imaging of Polarization and Ion Distributions in Functional Materials
Seungbum Hong1,2,*
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, 34141, Korea
2KAIST Institute for NanoCentury (KINC), KAIST, Daejeon, 34141, Korea
Biography:
Prof. Seungbum Hong graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1994 and received his Ph.D. in the field of nanoscale observation of ferroelectric thin films at KAIST in 2000. After a year of post-doc experience at EPFL in Switzerland from 2000 to 2001, he joined the probe storage project team as a project leader at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, he moved to Argonne National Laboratory as a tenured staff scientist and worked as a principal investigator in local domain and transport studies of oxide heterostructures and polymer ferroelectrics using atomic force microscopy until 2017. In 2017, Prof. Hong joined KAIST as an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and created the Materials Imaging and Integration (MII) Lab (http://mii.kaist.ac.kr). He was promoted to full professor in 2021 and served as the department head of DMSE from 2021 to 2024. He is currently the vice president in the office of academic affairs and the institution’s
Global Competitiveness Advisor. He has led the Global Singularity Project of Materials and Molecular Modeling, Imaging, Informatics and Integration (M3I3) at KAIST from 2019 to 2023.
He has broad experience in linking fundamental science with industrial applications (208 peer-reviewed journal papers, 5 book editions, 8 book chapters, 79 patents) with profound knowledge in nanoscale characterization of ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials. He has been invited to major conferences or universities, has been awarded the Young Investigator Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics in 2008, was elected as the Frontier Scientist by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology in 2014, and has worked as a symposium organizer in MRS Spring 2006 and 2008, MRS Fall 2010, and APS March Meeting 2013 and as a General Chair of Asia-Pacific PFM 2019 Workshop, and PFM General Chair of Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium & IEEE International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics (ISAF) in 2020 and IEEE ISAF-PFM in 2025.