We report a process for the fabrication of an anatase TiO(2) mesosponge (TMS) layer by an optimized Ti anodization process in a hot glycerol electrolyte followed by a suitable etching process. Such layers can easily be grown to >10 microm thickness and have regular channels and structural features in the 5-20 nm range. The layers show high photocatalytic activity and are mechanically very robust. The layers therefore open new pathways to the wide field of TiO(2)(anatase) applications.

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The magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial spinel ferrite CoFe 2 O 4 films grown on SrTiO 3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition can be reoriented by inserting a thin SrRuO 3 buffer layer. Without SrRuO 3 , the CoFe 2 O 4 films show a uniaxial anisotropy with the easy axis perpendicular to the film plane, while inserting a SrRuO 3 buffer layer results in the switching of the easy axis into the in-plane orientation. This is associated with a tensile and a compressive strain for the films without and with buffer layer, respectively, which is also correlated with the different density of interfacial misfit dislocations. As a result, the ferrite films can be effectively tailored by using SrRuO 3 .

A nanofabrication technique combining pulsed laser deposition and a nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide membrane mask is being proposed to prepare various types of multiferroic nanocomposites, viz. periodically ordered CoFe(2)O(4) dots covered by a continuous Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) layer, Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) dots covered with CoFe(2)O(4), and Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3)/CoFe(2)O(4) bilayer heterostructure dots. By properly tuning the processing parameters, epitaxial nanodot-matrix composites can be obtained. For the composite consisting of CoFe(2)O(4) nanostructures covered by a Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) film, an unexpected out-of-plane magnetic easy axis induced by the top Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) layer and a uniform microdomain structure can be observed. The nanocomposites tested by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) exhibit strong piezoelectric signals, and they also display magnetoelectric coupling revealed by magnetic-field dependent capacitance measurement.