Noheda’s research focuses on understanding the relationship between structure and functionality of thin films of ferroelectric, piezoelectric and multiferroic materials, the control of nano-domains that self-assemble by strain engineering, as well as the characterization of the distinct properties of domain walls. Her main scientific contributions have been the discovery of low symmetry (monoclinic) phases in high piezoelectric materials (PZT and MPB piezoelectrics) and the observation of domain walls as "vertical interfaces" with distinct structure and functionalities.  Although her research is fundamental in nature, it is inspired by two main application areas that she believes will enable the next technological revolution: piezoelectric energy harvesting for low power electronics and the development of novel materials for neuromorphic computing.

Noheda received her PhD in Physics in 1996 from the Autonomous University of Madrid and held stays and positions at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford, Brookhaven National Lab in New York and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 2004, she was awarded a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen, where she is Full professor since 2014, chairing the Nanostructures of Functional Oxides group. Noheda’s research focuses on understanding the structure-function relationship of thin films of ferroelectric, piezoelectric, multiferroic, and lately also memristive, materials, the control of nano-domains that self-assemble by strain engineering, as well as the characterization of the distinct properties of domain walls. Although her research is fundamental in nature, it is inspired by two main application areas that she believes will enable the next technological revolution: piezoelectric energy harvesting for low power electronics and the development of novel devices for neuromorphic computing. Following that vision, Noheda is the founding director of the Groningen Center for Cognitive Systems and Materials (CogniGron). In 2011, Noheda was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society ‘for fundamental structural studies of new phases in perovksite-type ferroelectric materials and of domain nanostructures in epitaxial films of multiferroics." In 2020, she received the IEEE-Robert E. Newnham Ferroelectrics award. In 2021 she became Senior IEEE member and in 2022, she has been elected member of the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (AcTI, the Dutch Academy of Enginneering).  She has served in numerous committees and several editorial boards, including the BORE of Science. She receives more than 10 invitations per year to speak in international conferences and has given 10 plenary and keynote talks.

Main publications in the past five years:

[1] Nukala et al. Reversible oxygen migration and phase transitions in hafnia-based ferroelectric devices, SCIENCE 372 (65420) 630-635 (2021), DOI: 10.1126/science.abf3789

Hafnia-based materials are revolutionizing the field of non-volatile memory devices because they show ferroelectricity at the scale of a couple of nanometers in a CMOS compatible material. After a few years of debate, ferroelectricity in Hafnium-oxide is now accepted, but the origin of the ferroelectric behaviour has remained an open question. This work has succeeded in imaging oxygen atoms and following their migration in operando under the electron microscope in a hafnium zirconium oxide capacitor. We found that vacancy migration is intertwined with the ferroelectric switching, which has implications for the use of these materials in a range of microelectronic applications. This is thanks to a close collaboration with the group of Prof. B. J. Kooi.

[2] Guo, et al.Tunable resistivity exponents in the metallic phase of epitaxial nickelates. Nat Commun11, 2949 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16740-5 and

[3] Guo & B. Noheda, From hidden metal-insulator transition to Planckian-like dissipation by tuning the oxygen content in a nickelate.npj Quantum Mater. 6, 72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-021-00374-x

We have investigated the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO₃ films as a function of oxygen content with unprecedented detail to demonstrate Planckian dissipation in fully oxygenized films and a “hidden metal-insulator transition” for oxygen deficient samples in which the pristine regions remain under the percolation threshold.

[4] Wei et al., A rhombohedral ferroelectric phase in epitaxially strained Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂thin films. Nat Mater. 17(12):1095-1100 (2018). doi: 10.1038/s41563-018-0196-0.

We report the epitaxial growth of Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ thin films on (001)-oriented La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrTiO₃ substrates for the first time. The obtain material is ferroelectric with a record polarization and forms a rhombohedral phase, different from the commonly reported polar orthorhombic phase. This new phase does not require cycling to “wake-up” the ferroelectric behaviour, which is a great advantage for device applications.