SPOTLIGHT

Meenu's paper on "Spike rate dependent synaptic characteristics in lamellar, multilayered α-MoO3 based two-terminal devices: efficient way to control synaptic amplification", co-authored with Dr. R. Thamankar, is accepted for publication in RSC Advances by Royal Society of Chemistry. (I.F. 4.036).

Amrita presented her poster titled "Artificial synapse based on Carbon Quantum Dots dispersed in Indigo molecular layer for Neuromorphic device application" at the 34th Annual General Meeting of Materials Research Society of India and 5th Indian Materials conclave, held at IIT (BHU), Varanasi during 12-15 December 2023.

Amrita presented her research work on "Carbon Quantum Dots based Neuromorphic Device" at the 2nd International Conference on Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology held during 20-21 November 2023 at Vienna, Austria.

Meenu's INSPIRE Fellowship is upgraded to Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) based on good progress in her work on "Threshold Switching in single/multilayer MoO3" by DST, Govt. of India.

Congratulations Meenu!

A new probe station is added to the lab facility for electrical characterization of thin film devices.

Specifications:

• Make: EverBeing Int'l; Model: C4

• 4 probes with magnetic-lock-based micropositioners

• Tungsten probe tips of 5µm diameter

• Heatable vacuum chuck; Temperatures: RT - 200°C

• Optical microscope; Magnification: 150x; Camera: Moticam 8MP

• Source Measurement Unit (SMU) - Keysight B2902B

This instrument is funded by DST-SERB Core Research Grant.

Girish participated in the 10-days Hands-on Training on "Nanofabrication and Characterization Techniques" as a part of Indian Nanoelectronics Users Programme - idea to innovation (INUP-i2i)  jointly organized by MeitY, Govt. of India and CeNSE, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru from 04-14 September 2023.

Sreelakshmi's paper on "Coexistence of synaptic behaviour and negative differential resistance at room temperature in the resistive switching device based on natural indigo molecules", co-authored with Dr. R. Thamankar, is published in Dyes and Pigments by Elsevier. (I.F. 5.122).

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2023.111638

Ms. Aishwarya G, who completed her Master's Thesis with NeoSMaRT, joins the Masters Programme in Materials Science and Engineering at Columbia University, New York, USA.

Keval's paper on "Bio-inspired artificial synapse for neuromorphic computing based on NiO nanoparticle thin film" co-authored with Dr. R. Thamankar, Dr. A. Rastogi & Dr. R. Ganesan, is published in Nature Scientific Reports (I.F. 4.6).

Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33752-56

Keval won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the International Conference on Functional Materials for Future Technology (IC-FMFT 2023) hosted by the Centre for Functional Materials at VIT Vellore, India. The award sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry included an RSC Book Voucher along with the certificate.

Congratulations Keval!

NeoSMaRT group members participated and volunteered for the International Conference on Functional Materials for Future Technology (IC-FMFT 2023) hosted by the Centre for Functional Materials at VIT Vellore, India from April 19-21, 2023.

• Ashly, Amrita, Keval, Meenu and Sreelakshmi participated in Poster Presentation, and also volunteered for the conference.

• Girish actively volunteered in designing and compiling the official Book of Abstracts, and served as the Master of Ceremonies for the inaugural event.

• Dr. Ramesh Thamankar served as the Chair for some technical sessions and organised the events as the Convener of the conference.

The Centre for Functional Materials (CFM) hosts the International Conference on Functional Materials for Future Technology (IC-FMFT 2023) from 19-21 April 2023 at VIT Vellore, India.

Dr. Ramesh Thamankar and CFM Director Dr. R. Ezhil Vizhi convene the conference.

• Book of Abstracts: icfmft2023-bookofabstracts.pdf

• Conference Website: https://vit.ac.in/ICFMFT-2023/

Amrita's paper on "Artificial synapse based on carbon quantum dots dispersed in indigo molecular layer for neuromorphic applications" co-authored with Dr. R. Thamankar, is published in APL Materials by AIP Publishing. (I.F. 6.635)

Link: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0143219

Dr. V. Radhakrishna, Head - Instrumentation Division, Space Astronomy Group, U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, ISRO delivered a talk on "Space Science Missions - Motivation and Challenges" to the students and faculty at VIT Vellore.

This lecture was organised by Prof. Ramesh Thamankar through Centre for Functional Materials (CFM).

Ashly attended the 1-week training programme on R&D Equipment "Advanced Instrumentation: Theory and Practice" jointly organized by the Department of Physics, SAS, VIT, Vellore and NIT, Warangal under the DST STUTI scheme.

Girish and Amrita attended the 3-days INUP-i2i online Familiarization Workshop on Nanofabrication Technologies, conducted by IIT-Bombay during 23-25 January 2023.

Prof. Ramesh Thamankar's project proposal on "MoS2/CaF2 Nanocomposite based Resistive Switching devices for Neuromorphic applications" is awarded the Core Research Grant (CRG) for a duration of 3 years by the Science and Engineering Board (SERB), DST, Govt. of India.

Prof. Ramesh Thamankar delivers an invited talk on "Memristors as an ideal platform for Neuromorphic devices and computation - A Physicist's perspective" during the 10th National Conference on Condensed Matter Physics and Applications (CMPA2022) organised by Manipal Institute of Techonology, Manipal, Karnataka, India.

Ms. Meera N, who completed her Master's Thesis with NeoSMaRT, joins her Ph.D. position with Dr. Alwin Daus at the Chair of Electronic Devices (ELD), RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Update: Ms. Meera is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at University of Freiburg, Germany.

Ashly presented her poster titled 'Room temperature Photoluminescence in low dimensional hexagonal Boron Nitride' at the International symposium on “Advanced Microscopy and its Application in Materials Science" organised by IIT, Madras, Chennai.

Ms. Aishwarya G, who completed her Master's Thesis with NeoSMaRT, qualifies the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) 2022.

Amrita, Meenu and Girish attended a 6-day virtual workshop on "Research Opportunities in Semiconductor Materials and Devices" (ROSMD-2022) jointly organised by SRMIST, Chennai and IIITDM, Kancheepuram.

Keval attended the 10-day Hands-on Training on "Nanofabrication and Characterization Techniques" as Level 2 of Indian Nanoelectronics Users Programme - idea to innovation (INUP-i2i) organized by CeNSE, IISc, Bengaluru.

Keval attended a 1-week Workshop on "Emerging Electronics for Logic and Memory devices: Towards Next-generation Computing

System" under Abhyaas Karyashala component of Accelerate Vigyan Scheme of SERB-DST organised by NIT-Silchar, Assam.

Ashly's paper on "Room-Temperature Deep-UV Photoluminescence from Low-Dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride Prepared Using a Facile Synthesis" is published in ACS Omega.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c02884

Ashly presented her work titled 'Room temperature photoluminescence in low dimensional hexagonal Boron Nitride' at the online Student Research Symposium 2022 themed 'Emerging Nanotechnology in Electron Devices' jointly organised by IEEE Chapters (NTC, EDS, and Sensors Council), IIT, Indore.

Meenu is awarded the INSPIRE Fellowship for her work on "Threshold Switching in single/multilayer MoO3" by DST, Govt. of India.

Meera successfully defends her M.Sc. Thesis titled "Two-dimensional materials based artificial synapses" at VIT, Vellore.

Aishwarya successfully defends her M.Sc. Thesis titled "Resistive Switching based Neuromorphic Devices" at VIT, Vellore.

Book Chapter on "Resistive Switching and Hysterisis Phenomena at Nanoscale" written by alumnus Vithaldas along with Prof. Ramesh, is published in the book 'Electromagnetic Field in Advancing Science and Technology' by IntechOpen.

Link: https://www.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101500

Amrita qualifies the national level Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) Physics 2021.