NEWS

26 December 2023
A paper entitled “Instability of the Pa-3 fulleride Cs3C60 at ambient pressure and superconducting state of the fcc phase” was published in Physical Review B.

18 December 2023
End-of-year dinner at Mozu, close to the OMU Nakamozu campus.
Jump to Gallery

7 December 2023
Professor Daniel R. Talham from the University of Florida visited our Department and gave a colloquium entitled “How the Solid-Solvent Interface Changes Phase Stability and Host-Guest Chemistry in Layered Solids”
Jump to Gallery

27 November 2023
Kosmas Prassides gave an invited lecture entitled “Something old, something new, something blue” at the Phase Transition and Dynamical Properties of Spin Transition Materials (PDSTM 2023) held at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

27 November 2023
A paper entitled “Electron injection into superconducting trivalent fullerides close to the Mott transition boundary” was published in Modern Physics Letters B.

20-21 September 2023
Keisuke Matsui (D2 student) gave a poster presentation entitled “Development of Pentavalent Fulleride Systems: Synthesis, Structural Studies and Electronic Properties” at the International Symposium of the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Metropolitan University: World-Leading Engineering Research, held at Osaka International Convention Center. His presentation was awarded as “Excellent Poster Award”.
Naoya Yoshikane (D3 student) also gave a poster presentation entitled “Pressure Induced Self-doping in Mixed-valent Molecular Solids, RE2.75C60” at the same meeting.
Jump to Gallery

1 September 2023
A new member, Research Associate Dr. George Bacanu joined our laboratory.

31 August – 2 September 2023
Keisuke Matsui (D2 student) gave a poster presentation entitled “Effect of electron injection into superconducting trivalent fullerides close to the Mott transition boundary” at The 9th TKU-ECUST-KIST-OMU-UH-IHU-KMITL-UTAR-TNU-HUFI Joint Symposium on Advanced Materials and Applications (JSAMA-9), held at University of Hyogo. His presentation was awarded as “Outstanding Poster Award”.
Mizuki Suzuki and Akane Matsumoto (M2 students) also gave poster presentations entitled “Search for superconducting fullerides by alkaline-earth doping” and “Alkali-intercalation chemistry of hybrid molecular solids derived from C60 and polyaromatic hydrocarbons”, respectively, at the same meeting.
Jump to Gallery

2-4 August 2023
Marina Nishiura gave a poster presentation entitled “Structural changes induced by alkali metal substitution in Prussian Blue analogues” at the 2023 Summer School of the Young Coordination Chemists’ Association of Japan, held at Kyushu University. Her presentation received a “Chemistry Letters Young Researcher Award”.
Jump to Gallery

26 July 2023
A paper entitled “Mixed orbital states and modulated crystal structures in La1−xCaxMnO3 deduced from synchrotron X-ray diffraction” was published in Communications Physics.

27 June 2023
Kosmas Prassides gave an invited lecture entitled “Coupling of lattice and electronic degrees of freedom in mixed-valence rare-earth fullerides” at the International Conference on Quantum in Complex Matter, Superstripes 2023, held in Ischia, Italy.

23 May 2023
A paper entitled “Isosymmetric Lattice Collapse in Mixed-Valence Rare-Earth Fullerides at High Pressure─Coupling of Lattice and Electronic Degrees of Freedom” was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C (highlighted as Supplementary cover of the June 2023 issue of volume 127).

8-12 May 2023
Kosmas Prassides and Naoya Yoshikane gave invited oral presentations entitled “Spontaneous magnetoelastic effects in Prussian blue analogue molecular magnets” and “Coupling of structural and electronic behaviors in mixed-valence RE2.75C60”, respectively, at the 2023 Joint CTMNM/NAGC Conference, Spetses, Greece.
Jump to Gallery

1 April 2023
Naoya Yoshikane was awarded a Fellowship by the Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to undertake a research project for 3 months at the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA under the supervision of Prof. Craig Brown.
Jump to Gallery

1 April 2023
Following his retirement, Professor Prassides moved to the Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science as a Guest Researcher. At the same time, he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Electrical Systems Engineering, Kyoto University of Advanced Science.

24 March 2023
Today Airi Tada (M2 student) successfully completed her Masters’ degree studies. Three B4 students – Kyohei Kawamura, Ryuhei Mimura, and Tsutomu Uraji also graduated successfully.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2023
Airi Tada (M2 postgraduate student) received the Department of Materials Science award ― Silver Medal ― for her graduation presentation entitled “Valence-electron-count and chemical composition control of superconductivity in high-entropy alloys”.
Ryuhei Mimura, Uraji Tsutomu, and Kyohei Kawamura (B4 postgraduate students) gave graduation presentations entitled “Effect of electron count on the superconductivity of the NbHfZrTi medium entropy alloys”, “Synthesis, characterization, and ab-initio structural investigation of C60-coronene co-crystal”, and “Influence of guest molecules on the structural and magnetic properties of Prussian Blue analogues”, respectively. Ryuhei Mimura was awarded the Department of Materials Science Gold Medal award. Kyohei Kawamura received a research encouragement award.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2023
We had an end of academic year party at Fukuden, close to Nakamozu campus after graduation celebration ceremony.
Jump to Gallery

6 January 2023
A paper entitled “Evolution of the magnetic structure in overdoped antiferromagnetic La1-xCaxMnO3 (0.51 ≤ x ≤ 0.69) manganites: A neutron diffraction study” was published in Physical Review B.

29 December 2022
End-of-year drinking party with Makiura-lab members at Sakaya-sho (near Nakamozu campus).
Jump to Gallery

15 December 2022
Naoya Yoshikane and Keisuke Matsui were awarded as “University President Award” from President of Osaka Metropolitan University, Prof. Masahiro Tatsumisago for their contribution to the enhancement of the University’s reputation.

5-8 December 2022
Naoya Yoshikane gave a poster presentation entitled “Mixed valency in strongly-correlated rare-earth fullerides, RE2.75C60 — a combined structural and spectroscopic study” at The 13th TOYOTA RIKEN International Workshop: Integrated Spectroscopy for Strong Electron Correlation — Theory, Computation and Experiment (ISSEC2022), held at Tokyo University, Hongo Campus, Koshiba Hall.
Jump to Gallery

11 October 2022
Airi Tada gave a poster presentation entitled “Design and fabrication of superconducting high-entropy alloys” at the 8th Materials WEEK, The Society of Materials Science, Japan, held in Kyoto, Japan.

28 September 2022
Naoya Yoshikane was successfully accepted for Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2) from Japan Society for The Promotion of Science (JSPS). He will be supported for next 2 years to work on “Creation of optically active multiferroics by chirality introduction into framework structures”.

26-28 September 2022
Naoya Yoshikane gave a oral presentation entitled “Mixed-valent rare-earth fullerides, RE2.75C60.” at the 72nd Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry (JSCC), held at Kyushu University. His presentation was awarded as “Student Lecture Awards” from JSCC. Also, his presentation was selected as outstanding student presentation to receive “Inorganic Chemistry Frontier Award” from Royal Society of Chemistry for his contribution to the field of solid-state chemistry.
Mizuki Suzuki, Marina Nishiura, and Akane Matsumoto also gave poster presentations entitled “Novel Crystal Structure through Exploration of the Calcium-C60 Binary Phase Field”, “Structural control of Prussian blue analogues by alkali metal substitution”, and “Ab initio structural investigation of C60/PAH co-adducts – new structures from powder diffraction data”, respectively, at the same meeting.Jump to Gallery

20-23 September 2022
Airi Tada gave a poster presentation entitled “Valence-electron-count control of superconductivity in high-entropy alloys” at the Year 2022 Autumn Annual Meeting, The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials, held at Fukuoka Institute of Technology.

2 September 2022
Professor Ioannis Arvanitidis from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece had stayed for 2 months in our laboratory for collaborative work at SPring-8.
Jump to Gallery

8-11 August 2022
Naoya Yoshikane, Marina Nishiura, and Akane Matsumoto gave poster presentations entitled “Mixed valency in (Sm1-xCax)2.75C60”, “Structural control of Prussian blue analogues by alkali metal substitution”, and “Ab initio structural investigation of C60/PAH co-adducts – new structures from powder diffraction data”, respectively, at the 8th Asian Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ACCC8), held online.

2-4 August 2022
Keisuke Matsui gave an oral presentation entitled “Synthesis and structural study of pentavalent fullerides” at the 2022 Summer School of the Young Coordination Chemists’ Association of Japan, held at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His presentation was awarded as “student oral presentation award”.
Mizuki Suzuki also gave a poster presentation entitled “Exploration of the Calcium-C60 Binary Phase Field” at the same meeting.
Jump to Gallery

11 July 2022
Naoya Yoshikane was successfully accepted for JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers from Japan Society for The Promotion of Science (JSPS). He will be supported for 3-months research activities under supervision of Professor Craig Brown— NIST Fellow and Team Lead: Structure and Dynamics of Materials— in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Maryland, USA.

23 June 2022
Kosmas Prassides gave an online invited lecture entitled “Searching for the Hebel-Slichter coherence peak across the superconductivity dome of fullerides” at the Superstripes 2022 International Conference held in Frascati, Rome, Italy.

27 May 2022
Kosmas Prassides gave a seminar entitled “Superconductivity and quantum magnetism in π-electron systems: a personal ongoing voyage into the unexpected” at the Department of Chemistry University of Crete, Greece, held online.

2-14 May 2022
Naoya Yoshikane and Keisuke Matsui visited the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)” in Grenoble, France for experiments on magnetic materials at high pressure.
Jump to Gallery

1 April 2022
Bachelor (B4) students Kyohei Kawamura, Ryuhei Mimura, and Tsutomu Uraji joined our laboratory. Akane Matsumoto, Marina Nishiura, and Mizuki Suzuki continue their research as Masters (M1) students. Keisuke Matsui and Naoya Yoshikane continue their research as Doctoral D1 and D2 students, respectively.

24 March 2022
Keisuke Matsui (M2 postgraduate student) was presented with the Department of Materials Science award ― Bronze Medal ― for his presentation “Pentavalent C60 – a new family of fullerides with rich structural diversity”.
Tomoaki Fushimi (M2 postgraduate student) was presented with an award from the Department of Materials Science for his presentation “Spontaneous magnetovolume effects in Prussian blue analogue molecular magnets”.
Mizuki Suzuki (B4 student) was presented with an award from the Department of Materials Science for his presentation “Exploration of the Calcium-C60 Binary Phase Field”.
Marina Nishiura (B4 student) was presented with an award from the Department of Materials Science for her presentation “Structural control of Prussian blue analogues by alkali metal substitution”.

24 March 2022
Today Tomoaki Fushimi (M2 student) from our laboratory successfully completed his Masters’ degree studies. Keisuke Matsui (M2 student) continues his research as a Doctoral student. Three B4 students – Mizuki Suzuki, Marina Nishiura, and Akane Matsumoto also graduated successfully and continue their research as Masters students.

8 March 2022
Our congratulations go to Keisuke Matsui (D1 doctoral student from April 1, 2022) who was awarded a 3-year Rhizome Fellowship for the duration of his doctoral studies.

21,22 February 2022
Three B4 students gave their final presentation for Bachelor’s degree ― “Exploration of the Calcium-C60 Binary Phase Field” (Mizuki Suzuki), “Structural control of Prussian blue analogues by alkali metal substitution” (Marina Nishiura) and “ab initio structural investigation of C60/PAH co-adducts – new structures from powder diffraction data” (Akane Matsumoto).

14,15 February 2022
Two M2 students gave their final presentation for Master’s degree ― “Spontaneous magnetovolume effects in Prussian blue analogue molecular magnets” (Tomoaki Fushimi) and “Pentavalent C60 – a new family of fullerides with rich structural diversity” (Keisuke Matsui).

11 February 2022
A paper entitled “Pressure effects on the crystal structure of the cubic metallofullerene salt [Li@C60][PF6] to 12 GPa” was published in Materials Today Communications.

16-21 December 2021
Kosmas Prassides gave invited lectures at the symposia on “Electron transfer: from electrochemistry to mixed-valence molecules to photosynthesis (In memory of the late Prof. Noel Hush)” and on “The Expanding Frontiers of Frustrated Magnetic Materials” at PACIFICHEM 2021, The International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies 2021  held online. The titles of his presentations were: “Mixed valency in alkali sesquioxides” and “Quantum magnetism in fully-frustrated all-carbon π-electron systems”, respectively.
Naoya Yoshikane was selected as a finalist for the Student Research Competition for his lecture entitled “Tuning rare-earth mixed valency by coupling to electronically-active fulleride anion sublattices” at the same conference.
Tomoaki Fushimi also gave a poster presentation entitled “Spontaneous magnetoelastic effects in Prussian blue analogue molecular magnets” at the same conference.

6-8 December 2021
Naoya Yoshikane and Keisuke Matsui gave lectures entitled “Tuning of Mixed Valency in Rare-Earth Fullerides at Ambient and Elevated Pressures” at the symposium “Physical Properties of Inorganic Solids Ⅶ” and “Crystal Structure and Electronic Properties of Cation-Ordered Non-Cubic Pentavalent Fullerides” at the symposium “Physical Properties of Inorganic Solids Ⅲ” at the 2021 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting  held online.

15 November 2021
Keisuke Matsui was presented with the OPU President Award for the presentation at the Rare-earth Society of Japan held on May 20th, 2021. Jump to Gallery

20-22 September 2021
Naoya Yoshikane and Keisuke Matsui gave lectures entitled “Structural and electronic study of rare-earth fullerides by synchrotron XAS and XRD techniques at ambient and elevated pressures” and “Synthesis and structural study of non-cubic cation-ordered ternary fullerides M2AC60“, respectively, at the 2021 Autumn Meeting, Condensed Matter Physics and Other Fields, The Physical Society of Japan  held online.

1 September 2021
Keisuke Matsui gave a lecture entitled “Systematic structural study of cation-ordered pentavalent fullerides” at the 61st Fullerenes-Nanotubes-Graphene General Symposium  held online.

3,4 August 2021
Naoya Yoshikane was presented with a student oral presentation award for his lecture entitled “Structural and electronic studies of rare-earth fullerides at elevated pressures” at the Summer School 2021, Young Coordination Chemists’ Association of Japan  held online.
Keisuke Matsui also gave a lecture entitled “Crystal structure of cation-ordered ternary fullerides M2AC60” at the same meeting.
Jump to Gallery

9 July 2021
Our congratulations go to Airi Tada (M1 student) who was awarded a scholarship by the Unicharm Resonance Foundation . This scholarship is awarded to highly motivated students with excellent academic achievement.

20 May 2021
Keisuke Matsui was presented with a student presentation award for his lecture entitled “Effect of chemical and physical pressure on rare-earth mixed valency in rare-earth fullerides” at the 37th Conference of the Rare-earth Society of Japan  held online.
Jump to Gallery

16 April 2021
Naoya Yoshikane gave a lecture entitled “Valence tuning in rare-earth fullerides at ambient and elevated pressures” at the Inorganic Solid State Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society ACS SPRING 2021 Meeting  held online.

14 April 2021
Kosmas Prassides gave an invited lecture entitled “Emergent electronic phenomena in all-carbon π-electron molecular systems” in the series of joint seminars of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP) and the Materials Growth and Measurement Laboratory (MGML), Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, held online.

1 April 2021
Our congratulations go to Naoya Yoshikane (D1 doctoral student) who was awarded a 3-year OPU Fellowship for the duration of his doctoral studies.

1 April 2021
Bachelor (B4) students Akane Matsumoto, Marina Nishiura, and Mizuki Suzuki joined our laboratory. Airi Tada continues her research as Masters (M1) student. Naoya Yoshikane continues his research as Doctoral (D1) student.

24 March 2021
Naoya Yoshikane (M2 postgraduate student) was presented with the Aogaki TECHNOVATION incentive award by Professor Morimoto (Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering). The Aogaki Foundation award recognizes superior research achievements at either the masters or Doctoral level and is given to encourage further high-level work.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2021
Airi Tada (B4 student) was presented with the Shirasagi award by Professor Tatsumisago (OPU President) at the Osaka Prefecture Graduation ceremony. The Shirasagi award is given to the student who achieved the highest academic performance graduating at the top of their class and making outstanding achievements in their area of study.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2021
Naoya Yoshikane (M2 postgraduate student) was presented with the Department of Materials Science award ― Gold Medal ― for his research “Valence tuning in rare-earth fullerides at ambient and elevated pressures”.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2021
Airi Tada (B4 student) was presented with the Department of Materials Science award ― Silver Medal ― for her research “Effect of chemical composition and electron count on superconducting high-entropy alloys”.
Kazunori Kishi (B4 student) was presented with an award from the Department of Materials Science for his research presentation “C60 fullerene/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon co-crystals as a platform towards new functional materials”.
Jump to Gallery

24 March 2021
Today three B4 students from our laboratory graduated successfully – Misa Usami, Kazunori Kishi, and Airi Tada.
At the same time, Naoya Yoshikane (M2 postgraduate student) successfully completed his Masters’ degree studies.
Many congratulations to all.
Jump to Gallery