The course methodology will combine traditional classroom lectures with independent student activities aimed at consolidating and deepening the concepts covered during the face-to-face sessions. These activities will include the reading of specialized literature (scientific articles) and the critical analysis of experimental results and case studies related to quantum materials and their applications in advanced devices.

In particular, the course will include a series of demonstration sessions in the quantum materials characterization laboratory, with the objective of introducing students to experimental techniques commonly used in current research. Different local probe microscopy techniques based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) will be presented, including magnetic force microscopy (MFM), piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), as well as electrical conductivity measurements, among other characterization techniques. The physical principles underlying these methods, measurement preparation, data acquisition and analysis, as well as examples of their application to the study of magnetic, ferroelectric, electronic, and topological properties in advanced materials, will be discussed.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

The assessment of the module will be based on three complementary activities. The final exam will account for 50% of the final grade and aims to evaluate the assimilation of fundamental concepts and the ability to relate them to the properties and applications of the quantum materials studied throughout the course.

25% of the grade will correspond to an oral presentation in class, carried out individually or in pairs depending on the number of enrolled students. This activity will consist of the analysis and discussion of relevant scientific articles in the field of quantum materials for devices, with special emphasis on the understanding of results, their contextualization within the state of the art, and scientific communication skills.

Finally, the remaining 25% will be assessed through the submission of an individual report on the laboratory demonstration session. The report must reflect an understanding of the physical and methodological principles of the characterization techniques presented, as well as the ability to critically interpret experimental data and relate them to the properties of the studied materials.

To pass the course, a final grade equal to or higher than 5 out of 10 is required. If the assessment is not passed, students will be entitled to a written resit exam covering the entire syllabus. In order to access the resit, the student must have been previously assessed in a set of activities whose weight represents at least two-thirds of the total continuous assessment grade. In this case, moreover, the grades obtained in short in-class tests and those corresponding to laboratory report submissions will not be taken into account.

If a student commits any type of irregularity that may lead to a significant change in the grade of an assessment activity, it will be graded with a 0, regardless of any disciplinary procedure that may follow. If multiple irregularities are detected in assessment activities of the same course, the final grade of the course will be 0.

This course does not allow single assessment.

This course allows the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies exclusively for bibliographic or information search and text editing. Lack of transparency in the use of AI in any assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty and will result in a grade of 0 for the activity, with no possibility of resit, or more severe penalties in serious cases.