The ESRF Detector Unit has a long experience in the development of X-ray detectors for a wide range of synchrotron applications. After a brief introduction of the ESRF, this talk will present examples of in-house designed 2D detector systems and their applications on beamlines, with some insights into the underlying technologies.

Resistive switching in nano particle incorporated polymer and bio degradable films is now a fast growing field as it has memory applications. Further the conduction mechanisms involved that lead to switching are of great interest.

Giving a brief summary of the status of different emerging memory sytems, I shall describe our work and recent results on resistive switching in :

1. PMMA-Al doped ZnO nano particles,

2. PVA-reduced graphene oxide

3. Gelatin-Graphene Oxide,

4. Gelatin-CdTe quantum dots and

5. Gelatin-Silver nano particles.

Low field microwave absorption (LFMA) was first observed in Cuprate high-Tc Superconductors. Later LFMA was reported in half metallic manganites, then followed by some magnetic materials. The fact that LFMA is not observable in every magnetic material makes this phenomenon intriguing. Examples for LFMA in ZnO system arre given, then LFMA in multiferroic BiFO3 sytem is described. We then show our preliminary results from BiFe0.5Mn0.5O3 system from Parma.

The remaining part of my talk is about a brief description of  other activities of my group at UNISA:

Nanoparticles with an anisotropic shape have shown great potential in innovative applications. For example, when magnetic anisotropic nanoparticles are subjected in a magnetic field, they will align with the field, resulting in a torque (τ_m = m x H), that can be transferred to the surrounding. Therefore, the effect is interesting for new magnetically responsive application such as magneto-optics and magneto-viscous fluids.

CAFFE’ SCIENTIFICI E LETTERARI: Il primo miliardesimo di secondo dopo il Big Bang: dove tutto è stato deciso

The development of ultra-compact integrated nanophotonic structures for communications, sensing, and signal processing has been of great interest lately. Recent progress in the development of miniaturized high-Q microresonators has resulted in orders of magnitude reduction in the size of functional integrated photonic structures. The possibility of low-power tuning of the resonance features in these structures has made the formation of reconfigurable photonic structures possible.

Controlled drug delivery and gene expression is required for a large variety of applications including cancer therapy, wound healing, cell migration, cell modification, cell-analysis, reproductive and regenerative medicine. Specially, the development of external stimuli responsive micro/nano-containers, possessing novel functionalities is attracting increasing research interest due to their ability to encapsulate and release active components, cells, particles and due to their potential applications in drug delivery.

Il progetto UBUNTU-PV, realizzato da IMEM, ParmaAlimenta ed il centro Agro-Pastorale di Kirundo, si propone di solarizzare alcune zone rurali del Burundi, attraverso la costruzione e l’installazione di piccoli sistemi fotovoltaici a bassissimo costo. La presentazione, in forma di reportage fotografico, illustra lo stato di avanzamento e le prospettive delle attività.

The increasing concern of our society about energy efficiency, together with the fact that temperature control accounts for a large portion of the energy consumption at homes and commercial buildings, has fostered research on the applicability of magnetocaloric materials for magnetic refrigeration [1]. Most of the current studies on magnetocaloric materials focus on the optimization of their properties for room temperature magnetic refrigeration. The aim of this talk is to show that MCE can also be used for characterizing magnetic phase transitions.