.Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC)05 Dec | Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) | BellaterraThe Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) is currently seeking a highly motivated candidate to sponsor the application of a doctoral INPhINIT fellowship from "La Caixa" Foundation to pursue PhD studies in our research centre accredited with the Spanish Seal of Excellence "Severo Ochoa". This candidacy is focused on STEM disciplines, with a maximum duration of 4 years, covering labour costs, research costs and doctoral tuition fees, plus on-site training program in multidisciplinary skills.Description of the research project and group:It has been recently observed that when two layers of a ferroelectric material are stacked with relative twist angles of several degrees, novel ferroelectric wave and vortex patterns form and they ascribe to the specific boundary conditions formed by the moiré pattern of the interface between membrane layers. This simple strategy allows stabilizing intriguing ferroelectric patterns of electric polarization that could be leveraged for next-generation electronics. Here, we aim on the atomic scale investigation of emerging electric-polarization textures in 'twist-and-stack' engineered free-standing layers of BiFeO3 (BFO), a lead-free and room temperature multiferroic material with strong coupling between lattice (strain) and charge, spin and orbital parameters. The candidate will be devoted to the study of multiferroic heterojunctions stacked at different twist angles by plane-view and cross-sectional aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to characterize the atomic reconstructions at moiré points and study the local changes in lattice, electronic and vibrational (phonons) structures. The candidate will have access to cutting-edge microscopy platforms located at the ALBA synchrotron (Bellaterra, Barcelona), Institut Català de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), the University of Barcelona (UB). The candidate will also have the opportunity to perform periodic research stays at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS, Beijing, China), one of the top laboratories for studies in ultra-high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS).The recruited PhD candidate will enrol in the Materials Science PhD program at Autonomous University of Barcelona. The candidate will be supervised by Dr. Roger Guzman under the Nacional Project PID2023-149407NB-I00, and will join the Laboratory of Multifunctional Thin Films and Complex Structures (MULFOX) at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), one of the leading groups on the growth and characterization of complex oxides