KIMURA-Tomoaki

KIMURA Tomoaki
Title Assistant Professor
Department Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
Course Electrical and Electronic Course

Research fields

Superionic conductors are compounds that exhibit exceptionally high values of ionic conductivity within the solid state. The superionic conductors have been expected as a novel solid electrolyte for lithium ion battery commonly used as a power supply for major mobile electronic devices such a mobile phone and notebook computer. Our main scientific target is clarifying structures and physical properties of materials exhibiting exotic features including the superionic conductors. We are focusing on following scientific topics.

・Explorations of superionic phase stable under high pressure:

Silver iodide (AgI) becomes a superionic conductor at 147 ℃, where the cation rapidly diffuses within the sublattice composed of the anion. This is a good example that some of compounds undergoes superionic transitions under high temperature condition. Recently, a superionic transition induced by applying pressure (not by heating) has been found. We have been exploring novel superionic phases under high pressure and temperature condition by means of Raman and Brillouin spectroscopies.

・Development of techniques for producing high pressure and temperature conditions:

Techniques to produce high pressure and temperature (P-T) conditions are necessary for exploring new material phases. A diamond anvil cell allows us to produce an extreme high pressure equivalent to the center of the Earth (360 GPa). We are now developing techniques to stably generate high P-T conditions by combining the diamond anvil cell with heating units such an infrared laser and resistive heater.

Research Keywords

High pressure and high temperature, Superionic conductor, Melting

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