Hyeon Han
Pohang University of Science and Technology · Materials Science
About the Lab
Professor Hyeon Han's research lab specializes in the design, synthesis, and integration of advanced oxide materials for energy conversion and nanoscale electronic devices. The lab focuses on epitaxial oxide thin films, particularly perovskites and manganites, to engineer functional properties such as ferroelectricity, metal-insulator transitions, and ion/electron transport. Key research directions include strain-engineered exsolved nanoparticles for high-performance catalysis, ferroelectric photovoltaics with tunable band gaps, and VO2-based optical memory devices for silicon photonics. The lab combines advanced pulsed laser epitaxy, in situ characterization, and device integration to explore fundamental mechanisms and enable next-generation energy and information technologies.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
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Selected Papers
15Abstract Nanoparticles formed on oxide surfaces are of key importance in many fields such as catalysis and renewable energy. Here, we control B-site exsolution via lattice strain to achieve a high degree of exsolution of nanoparticles in perovskite thin films: more than 1100 particles μm −2 with a particle size as small as ~5 nm can be achieved via strain control. Compressive-strained films show a larger number of exsolved particles as compared with tensile-strained films. Moreover, the strain-e
Nucleation of nanoparticles using the exsolution phenomenon is a promising pathway to design durable and active materials for catalysis and renewable energy. Here, we focus on the impact of surface orientation of the host lattice on the nucleation dynamics to resolve questions with regards to "preferential nucleation sites". For this, we carried out a systematic model study on three differently oriented perovskite thin films. Remarkably, in contrast to the previous bulk powder-based study sugges
Ferroelectric photovoltaics (FPVs) are being extensively studied owing to their anomalously high photovoltages, coupled with reversibly switchable photocurrents. However, FPVs suffer from their extremely low photocurrents, which is primarily due to their wide band gaps. Herein, we present a new class of FPV by demonstrating (i) a nearly optimum band gap of ∼1.55 eV and (ii) the ferroelectric polarization switching in the epitaxial hexagonal manganite thin films, h -RMnO 3, where R = Lu and Y. Ac
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is an interesting material for hybrid photonic integrated devices due to its insulator–metal phase transition. Utilizing the hysteresis of the phase transition in voltage-biased VO2, we demonstrate a compact hybrid VO2–silicon optical memory element integrated into a silicon waveguide. An optical pulse writes the VO2 memory, leading to an optical attenuation that can be read out by the optical transmission in a silicon waveguide. Our on-chip memory cell can be optically wr
Abstract The niobium oxide polymorph T -Nb 2 O 5 has been extensively investigated in its bulk form especially for applications in fast-charging batteries and electrochemical (pseudo)capacitors. Its crystal structure, which has two-dimensional (2D) layers with very low steric hindrance, allows for fast Li-ion migration. However, since its discovery in 1941, the growth of single-crystalline thin films and its electronic applications have not yet been realized, probably due to its large orthorhomb
Ferroelectric photovoltaics (FPVs) are being extensively investigated by virtue of switchable photovoltaic responses and anomalously high photovoltages of ∼10 4 V. However, FPVs suffer from extremely low photocurrents due to their wide band gaps ( E g ). Here, we present a promising FPV based on hexagonal YbFeO 3 (h-YbFO) thin-film heterostructure by exploiting its narrow E g . More importantly, we demonstrate enhanced FPV effects by suitably exploiting the substrate-induced film strain in these
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Oxygen defects and their atomic arrangements play a significant role in the physical properties of many transition metal oxides. The exemplary perovskite SrCoO 3-δ ( P- SCO) is metallic and ferromagnetic. However, its daughter phase, the brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 ( BM- SCO), is insulating and an antiferromagnet. Moreover, BM- SCO exhibits oxygen vacancy channels (OVCs) that in thin films can be oriented either horizontally ( H -SCO) or vertically
Abstract Exsolution of excess transition metal cations from a non-stoichiometric perovskite oxide has sparked interest as a facile route for the formation of stable nanoparticles on the oxide surface. However, the atomic-scale mechanism of this nanoparticle formation remains largely unknown. The present in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with density functional theory calculation revealed that the anti-phase boundaries (APBs) characterized by the a /2 < 011> type la
Ferroelectric photovoltaics (FPVs) have drawn much attention owing to their high stability, environmental safety, and anomalously high photovoltages, coupled with reversibly switchable photovoltaic responses. However, FPVs suffer from extremely low photocurrents, which is primarily due to their wide band gaps. Here, we present a new class of FPVs by demonstrating switchable ferroelectric photovoltaic effects and narrow band-gap properties using hexagonal ferrite (h-RFeO3) thin films, where R den
The synthesis of high-purity BiFeO 3 (BFO) ceramic by solid-state reaction is known to be very difficult due to inevitable formation of the secondary phases, mostly mullite-type Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 and sillenite-type Bi 25 FeO 39 . In particular, it is very difficult to completely remove the Bi-deficient Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 phase from sintered ceramic BFO targets. This problem consequently leads to the difficulty of fabricating high-quality BFO thin films using these sintered targets. Herein, we introduce a
Abstract The perovskite SrRuO 3 (SRO) is a strongly correlated oxide whose physical and structural properties are strongly intertwined. Notably, SRO is an itinerant ferromagnet that exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect (AHE) whose sign can be readily modified. Here, a hydrogen spillover method is used to tailor the properties of SRO thin films via hydrogen incorporation. It is found that the magnetization and Curie temperature of the films are strongly reduced and, at the same time, the struct
Nanostructured materials can display unique physical properties and are of particular interest for their new functionalities. Epitaxial growth is a promising approach for the controlled synthesis of nanostructures with desired structures and crystallinity. SrCoO x is a particularly intriguing material owing to a topotactic phase transition between an antiferromagnetic insulating brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 (BM-SCO) phase and a ferromagnetic metallic perovskite SrCoO 3-δ (P-SCO) phase depending on t
Abstract Ionic gating of oxide thin films has emerged as a novel way of manipulating the properties of thin films. Most studies are carried out on single devices with a three‐terminal configuration, but, by exploring the electrokinetics during the ionic gating, such a configuration with initially insulating films leads to a highly non‐uniform gating response of individual devices within large arrays of the devices. It is shown that such an issue can be circumvented by the formation of a uniform
Research Areas
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