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Prof. X.L. Ma

Tel: 024-23971845
Email: xlma@imr.ac.cn
Research Interest
 

*Essential issues in materials science on atomic scale.

*Microstructure and microanalysis of low-dimensional oxides materials and relationships with the properties.

*Microstructure and microanalysis of materials; Image processing.

Research Experiences
 

Graduated in 1988 at Department of Materials Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Prof. Ma received his Ph.D in 1994 under the supervision of Prof. K. H. Kuo from Dalian University of Technology and Beijing Laboratory of Electron Microscopy. He was then awarded the Research Fellowship in 1995-1997 by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany . He received Research Fellowships in 1997-2001 from Japan Fine Ceramics Center , Tokyo University , and City University of Hong Kong, respectively. In 2000 he was granted by the Hundred Talents Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences and then was appointed as a professor at Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science . He is a grantee of the National Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation of China.

  Dr. Ma has been focusing on electron diffraction and the atomic dimension microstructures of materials and their relationship with properties. The materials that he has been working on range from 3D bulk, 2D multilayers to 1D nanowires and nanobelts of semiconductive materials.

  Dr. Ma has had extensive research experience on: electron diffraction and micro-diffraction; applications of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy jointly with computational material science on the basis of the first-principle and the crystal-chemical atomic dynamics; applications of incoherent high-resolution imaging; nano-probe X-ray spectroscopy for quantitative structure determination of crystals and interfaces; synthesis and characterization of thin oxide films and one-dimensional nanomaterials for microelectronics applications.

 
 
 
Research Highlights

·

Discovered the unique binary system in which stable decagonal quasicrystal (DQC) is obtained. This work changed one's concept that stable DQC could be obtained only in multicomponent alloys. This work was highlighted in << Physical Metallurgy >> (1996) by Prof. R. W. Cahn.

· Prepared successfully millimeter-scaled single-crystallined DQCs, and obtained the physical properties which are remarkably different from those of conventional 3D periodic crystals;

· Discovered 13 new phases with giant unit cells in Al-Co alloys and 7 new phases in Al-Cu-(Cr) system; classified these phases into two families of monoclinic and orthorhombic; established relationships among all these phases and proposed the structural models for some of them. This work was reviewed in <<Convergent-beam Electron Diffraction >> (2002) by Prof. M. Tanaka.

· Built up atomic and electronic structures at the AlN/TiN/MgO interfaces on the basis of high resolution imaging and the first-principles calculations; identified “epitaxy-stablized?growth of cubic AlN on TiN; quantitatively presented the physical insights of the critical thickness, at which the pseudomorphic growth of AlN cannot be preserved on TiN; quantitatively described the thickness-dependent structural transformation;

· Discovered highly dense, dimensionally uniform and dome-shaped nanoclusters in the In- and Nb-doped SrTiO 3 films. Such nanoclusters are geometrically similar to quantum dots in conventional semiconductors, which might extend quantum-dot materials to Perovskite oxides.

· Identified salient features of non-unique crystallographic orientation in an individual Si nanowire and proposed growth mechanisms for 1D Si nanowires and SnO 2 nanobelts.

Honors and Awards
 

Dr. Ma has published over 100 papers and co-authored 1 book. His papers have been cited for over 500 times. The impact of some of his work is so high that he was honored with ISI Citation Classic Awards in 2000. Some of his work was awarded with the first-class prize by the State-Committee of Education in 1993 and National Society for Materials Research in 1994. He was awarded the Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1995-1997, 2002, and 2005. He has been selected to be one of the grantees of the Hundred Talents Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a grantee of the National Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation of China. He is one of the members of the council of Chinese Electron Microscopy Society and one of the editors of the Journal of Electron Microscopy (in Chinese). In 2008, he was awarded the Outstanding Scientific Researcher by Shenyang's government.

Selected publications representative of the research highlights
 

Y. Li, W. F. Li, G. Xu, X. L. Ma, H. M. Cheng, ZnO microcolumns originated from self-assembled nanorods, J. Mater. Sci. 43 (2008) 1711?715.

Y. Li, Y. H. Zhao, Z. H. Zhang, W. Liu, V. Ortalan, Y. Z. Zhou, X. L. Ma，E. J. Lavernia, SnO2 nanobelts and nanocrystals: Synthesis, characterization and optical properties, J. Cryst. Growth, 310 (2008) 4226?232.

S.J. Zheng, K. Du, X.L. Ma, Abnormal grain growth of BaTiO3 by 2D nucleation and lateral growth, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 28 (2008) 1821?825.

M.J.Zhuo, X.L.Ma, Microstructure of Ag/BaTiO3 films grown on MgO(100) substrate under external electric field, Philos. Mag. 87 (2007) 5117-5128.

S. J. Zheng, X. L. Ma, Asymmetrical twin boundaries and highly dense antiphase domains in the BaNb0.3Ti0.7O3 thin films, Philos. Mag. 87(2007) 4421-4431.

S. J. Zheng, K. Du, X. H. Sang, X. L. Ma, TEM and STEM investigation of grain boundaries and second phases in barium titanate, Philos. Mag. 87 (2007) 5447-5459.

Y. L. Zhu, M. J. Zhuo, S. J. Zheng, B. Wu, X. L. Ma, Microstructural characteristics in the BaTiO2.52 thin films showing metallic behavior, Mater. Letts. 61 (2007) 1971-1973.

Y.Li, G.Xu, Y.L.Zhu, X.L.Ma, H.M.Cheng, SnO2/In2O3 one-dimensional nano-core-shell structures: Synthesis, characterization and photoluminescence properties, Solid State Commun. 142 (2007) 441-444.

 Y. L. Zhu, X. L. Ma and D. X. Li, Microstructural analyses of a highly conductive Nb-doped SrTiO 3 film, Acta Mater., 53,277-1284 (2005).

M. Zhang, X. L. Ma and D. X. Li, Patterned nanoclusters in In-doped SrTiO 3 films, Appl. Phys. Letts., 85, 5899-5901(2004).

 Y. L. Zhu, B. Wu, X. L. Ma and D. X. Li, Textured nano-agglomerates embedded in the thin film of La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 , Appl. Phys. Letts., 85, 3438-3440(2004).

 X. L. Ma, Y. Li, and Y. L. Zhu, Growth mode of the SnO 2 nanobelts synthesized by rapid oxidation, Chem. Phys. Letts., 376, 794-798(2003).

 X. L. Ma, Y. L. Zhu, and Z. Zhang, Growth orientation of one-dimensional Silicon nanowires prepared by thermal evaporation, Philos. Mag. Letts., 82, 461-468(2002).

 X. L. Ma et al. , Oriented domains in the thin film of La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 prepared by laser molecular beam epitaxy, Philos. Mag. A, 82, 1331-1343(2002).

 X. L. Ma et al., Multi-layered structures of SrNb 0.1 Ti 0.9 O 3 /La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 /SrTiO 3 prepared by laser molecular beam epitaxy, J. Mater. Res., 17, 600-608(2002).

 X. L. Ma, N. Shibata , and Y. Ikuhara, Interface characterization of AlN/TiN/MgO(001) prepared by molecular beam epitaxy, J. Mater. Res., 14, 1597-1603(1999).

 X. L. Ma, A. Rüdiger, H. Liebertz, U. K?ster, A new structural variant of z -Al 3 Cu 4 and its orientation relationship with the cubic g - Al 4 Cu 9 , Script Mater., 39, 707-714(1998).

 X. L. Ma and K. H. Kuo, Multiple twins of t 2 -Al 13 Co 4 showing fivefold symmetry, Metall. Mater. Trans. A, 26, 757-763(1995).

 X. L. Ma, X. Z. Li, and K. H. Kuo, A family of t -inflated monoclinic Al 13 Co 4 phases, Acta Crystallogr. B, 51, 36-43(1995).

 X. L. Ma and K. H. Kuo, A high resolution electron microscopy study of domain structures of monoclinic t 2 -Al 13 Co 4 , Philos. Mag. A, 71, 687-700(1995).

 X. L. Ma and K. H. Kuo, Crystallographic characteristics of Al-Co decagonal quasicrystal and its monoclinic approximant t 2 -Al 13 Co 4 , Metall. Mater. Trans. A, 25, 47-56(1994).

 X. L. Ma and K. H. Kuo, Decagonal quasicrystal and related crystalline phases in slowly solidified Al-Co alloys, Metall. Trans. A, 23, 1121-1128(1992).