Vivasha Govinden

I am a PhD student at the School of Materials Science and Engineering in UNSW in Prof. Nagarajan Valanoor's research group. My technical expertise lies in thin film synthesis (pulsed laser deposition) , film characterisation ( x-ray diffraction, scanning probe microscopy and ferroelectric testing) and device fabrication( UV photolithography, e-beam metal evaopration).  My research focuses on making very thin ceramic films to investigate the science in it. More precisely, I investigate the ferroelectric coupling with the introduction of a dielectric spacer between ferroelectric thin films, which leads to the occurence of topological defects that exhibit emergent phenomena. This is key to applications in nanoelectronic sensors, memory and logic devices and electromechanical systems. Well, in short, we are researching on the future low energy electronic device. At a community level, I am passionate about science outreach, especially about the movement of more girls in STEM.