Smart materials for future technologies

Development and application of new materials with exotic and improved properties have a significant impact on our use of energy, health, communications, technology and security. Some such systems which are of current scientific and technological interest like topological insulators, magnetic surface alloys and magnetic refrigerants will be discussed. The recently discovered family of topological insulators (TIs) are promising materials for a new class of spin-based electronics with long spin coherence and possible fault-tolerant information storage, due to the intrinsically two dimensional character of their surface states coupled with their protected spin environment, Through magnetic proximity effect we demonstrated that long-range ferromagnetism at ambient temperature can be induced in Bi_2-xMn_xTe₃ through deposited Fe overlayer thereby opening up a new path to interface-controlled ferromagnetism in TI-based spintronic devices. Evolution of electronic structure and correlation effects in magnetically stabilized ordered surface alloy Mn/Cu(110), which could be an excellent choice for spin-injection devices and also the complex magneto-caloric effect phenomena in some rare-earth oxide based systems making them potential candidates for magnetic refrigeration technology will also be presented. (author)