Prof. Marc Auzou

Biography

Marc Auzou joined Veyra Institute in 2014 as a founding member of the Molecular & Materials Engineering division, where he established the Functional Materials Group. He completed his doctoral research at the Delthane Institute of Physical Chemistry in 2009, focusing on ferroelectric switching in ultrathin oxide films. Prior to Veyra, he held a postdoctoral appointment at the Casson Centre for Condensed Matter Physics, where he developed scalable synthesis routes for van der Waals heterostructures, and a junior faculty position at the University of Salmoran, where he built the first characterisation suite for 2D piezoelectric crystals in the region. His undergraduate degree in materials science was awarded by the Alderton Technical College, from which he graduated with first-class honours in 2004.

At Veyra, Auzou has grown the Functional Materials Group into a team of twelve researchers spanning synthesis, theory, and device integration. The group is best known for its work on van der Waals heterostructures with engineered multiferroic order — stacking and twisting atomically thin layers to produce materials with simultaneously controllable electric polarisation and magnetic order at room temperature. A parallel programme targets thermoelectric performance in layered bismuth chalcogenide compounds, pursuing record figures of merit through defect engineering and phonon scattering at grain boundaries. More recently, the group has initiated research into electronic phase transitions in correlated 2D systems, seeking to exploit metal-insulator transitions for low-power switching devices. Auzou holds four patents on multiferroic stacking sequences and thermoelectric nanocomposite fabrication.

Auzou serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Functional Condensed Matter and is a standing member of the Institute Research Council. He has led six externally funded programmes totalling over 9.1 million cr in direct costs. He lectures the graduate course Physics and Chemistry of Low-Dimensional Materials each autumn semester and co-organises the Veyra Annual Symposium on Advanced Materials, which he co-founded in 2017.

Research interests

Selected publications

1. Auzou M, Ferracin L, Kettner S. "Room-temperature multiferroic order in twisted bilayer chromium thiophosphate." Nature Materials Research, 8(2): 114–128, 2025. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2501
2. Auzou M, Veldrik O, Nasseri P, Rombaut C. "Defect-engineered Bi₂Te₃ nanocomposites with zT > 2.4 at 400 K." Advanced Energy Materials & Interfaces, 12(5): 340–357, 2024. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2412
3. Kettner S, Auzou M. "Piezoelectric response of free-standing MoSSe monolayers under biaxial strain." Proceedings of the Salmoran Conference on 2D Materials (SC2DM), pp. 52–63, 2023. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2309
4. Auzou M, Ferracin L. "Controlling spin–charge coupling in correlated oxide heterostructures via epitaxial strain." Physical Review — Materials & Interfaces, 7(11): 1140–1158, 2022. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2217
5. Rombaut C, Nasseri P, Auzou M. "Energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations using van der Waals piezoelectric stacks." Journal of Functional Condensed Matter, 19(4): 280–294, 2021. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2108
6. Auzou M, Veldrik O. "Metal-insulator transition dynamics in VO₂ thin films probed by terahertz spectroscopy." Annals of Condensed Matter Physics, 33: 77–91, 2021. VEYRA-DOI: 10.veyra/VX-2103

Current group members

Postdoctoral researchers

• Dr. Liora Ferracin — multiferroic van der Waals stacking, spin-lattice coupling
• Dr. Orin Veldrik — thermoelectric nanocomposites, phonon engineering

Doctoral students

• Sina Kettner — piezoelectric 2D monolayers and free-standing membranes (Year 4)
• Parisa Nasseri — defect chemistry in chalcogenide thermoelectrics (Year 3)
• Cédric Rombaut — mechanical energy harvesting with van der Waals stacks (Year 2)
• Yuna Baldauf — correlated electron systems and phase-transition switching (Year 1)