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Jeong, Chaehwa

Publications and source records attributed to Jeong, Chaehwa.

4 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Atomic-scale 3D structural dynamics and functional degradation of Pt alloy nanocatalysts during the oxygen reduction reaction

Pt-based electrocatalysts are the primary choice for fuel cells due to their superior oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. To enhance ORR performance and durability, extensive studies have investigated transition metal alloying, doping, and shape control to optimize the three key governing factors for ORR: geometry, local chemistry, and strain of their surface and subsurface. However, systematic optimization remains incomplete, as it requires an atomic-scale understanding of these factors and their dynamics over potential cycling, as well as their relationship to ORR activity. Here, we implement neural network-assisted atomic electron tomography to measure the 3D atomic structural dynamics and their effects on the functional degradation of PtNi alloy catalysts. Our results reveal that PtNi catalysts undergo shape changes, surface alloying, and strain relaxation during cycling, which can be effectively mitigated by Ga doping. By combining geometry, local chemistry, and strain analysis, we calculated the changes in ORR activity over thousands of cycles and observed that Ga doping leads to higher initial activity and greater stability. These findings offer a pathway to understanding 3D atomic structural dynamics and their relation to ORR activity during cycling, paving the way for the systematic design of durable, high-efficiency nanocatalysts.

Jeong, Chaehwa↗
DOE OSTI2024

Revealing the three-dimensional arrangement of polar topology in nanoparticles

In the early 2000s, low dimensional ferroelectric systems were predicted to have topologically nontrivial polar structures, such as vortices or skyrmions, depending on mechanical or electrical boundary conditions. A few variants of these structures have been experimentally observed in thin film model systems, where they are engineered by balancing electrostatic charge and elastic distortion energies. However, the measurement and classification of topological textures for general ferroelectric nanostructures have remained elusive, as it requires mapping the local polarization at the atomic scale in three dimensions. Here we unveil topological polar structures in ferroelectric BaTiO3 nanoparticles via atomic electron tomography, which enables us to reconstruct the full three-dimensional arrangement of cation atoms at an individual atom level. Our three-dimensional polarization maps reveal clear topological orderings, along with evidence of size-dependent topological transitions from a single vortex structure to multiple vortices, consistent with theoretical predictions. The discovery of the predicted topological polar ordering in nanoscale ferroelectrics, independent of epitaxial strain, widens the research perspective and offers potential for practical applications utilizing contact-free switchable toroidal moments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Variance-aware weight quantization of multi-level resistive switching devices based on Pt/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

Abstract Resistive switching devices have been regarded as a promising candidate of multi-bit memristors for synaptic applications. The key functionality of the memristors is to realize multiple non-volatile conductance states with high precision. However, the variation of device conductance inevitably causes the state-overlap issue, limiting the number of available states. The insufficient number of states and the resultant inaccurate weight quantization are bottlenecks in developing practical memristors. Herein, we demonstrate a resistive switching device based on Pt/LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (Pt/LAO/STO) heterostructures, which is suitable for multi-level memristive applications. By redistributing the surface oxygen vacancies, we precisely control the tunneling of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) through the ultrathin LAO barrier, achieving multiple and tunable conductance states (over 27) in a non-volatile way. To further improve the multi-level switching performance, we propose a variance-aware weight quantization (VAQ) method. Our simulation studies verify that the VAQ effectively reduces the state-overlap issue of the resistive switching device. We also find that the VAQ states can better represent the normal-like data distribution and, thus, significantly improve the computing accuracy of the device. Our results provide valuable insight into developing high-precision multi-bit memristors based on complex oxide heterostructures for neuromorphic applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗