Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Department of Physics

The Nanostructured Materials Microscopy Group (NMMG) is a leading group in the structural characterization of advanced materials accomplishing a concrete correlation of micro- to macroscopic properties through electron microscopy techniques.
Principal research activities include the investigation of nanostructures, defects, interfaces, and strain fields in a variety of material systems such as ceramics, multilayer silicon structures and amorphous metal glasses . During the last decade the research interest of NMMG has been focused on low dimensional semiconductors, and especially III-Nitrides.
The NMMG researchers have a broad expertise in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analytical techniques such as Selective Area Electron Diffraction (SAED), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS). Quantitative information is obtained by image processing of high resolution TEM (HRTEM) observations concerning strain measurements and local chemical composition identification. Topological analysis is applied for the a priori characterization of line and extended interfacial defects. Image processing and simulation techniques are implemented for the investigation of the experimental images. Reliable models for the atomic structures are obtained by the correlation of experimental results with theoretical models by large-scale atomic simulations and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations provide insight on the electronic properties of materials and defect structures.