Transparent organic electronic and optoelectronic devices are nowadays emerging technologies for future applications, for example in smart windows and in photovoltaic cells. The attributes of organic materials include large and ultrafast nonlinear optical responses and large colour tuneability. However, the electrical conductivity of organic materials is usually poor and this limits their utility. Here we propose to pursue a new type of organic material for such applications, a material that has a high electrical conductivity and thus has the potential to revolutionise the field: the material is graphene. This is a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, with spectacular strength, flexibility, transparency, and electrical conductivity. The proposed project is directed specifically at tuning the electronic properties of graphene in order to allow the potential of this material to be exploited in transparent electronic and optoelectronic devices. The outputs of the project, the development of graphene-based transparent devices, will be fundamental to the commercial and the economic development of transparent electronics. So far, chemical functionalization of graphene with different molecular species revealed that each molecular specie can be used to accumulate electrons or holes in graphene ( that is n- or p-type doping of graphene). This suggests the possibility that different doping of adjacent graphene areas can be used to engineer electron/hole interfaces also known as p-n junctions, which are the core of large part of nowadays electronic devices. Other chemical species such as hydrogen and fluorine atoms attached to graphene can modify its band structure by opening a band gap in the otherwise zero-gap semimetallic material, providing the opportunity to use graphene as a truly organic semiconductor. The potential afforded by the chemical functionalization of graphene materials is still in its infancy, and it holds great promise for future integrated optoelectronics. The tremendous advantages of integrating devices on the same chip in electronics naturally suggest that the same be done with electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, integration of optoelectronic devices has proven to be a difficult challenge because of inherent incompatibilities. For example, a light-emitting diode based on a p-n structure has a structure quite different from the structure of any transistor. The exploitation of graphene will allow this incompatibility to be transcended. Intelligent schemes of functionalization of graphene hold the promise to accomplish the patterning of transparent standard resistors, capacitors and transistor structures integrated with light-emitting and detecting devices which constitutes a fundamental step towards applications such as smart windows. This pioneering research is at the core of this proposal.

CRUST takes advantage of the UK's leadership in uncertainty evaluation of earthquake source and ground motion (Goda [PI] and University of Bristol/Cabot Research Institute) and on-shore tsunami impact research (Rossetto [Co-I] and University College of London/EPICentre [Earthquake and People Interaction Centre]) to develop an innovative cross-hazard risk assessment methodology for cascading disasters that promotes dynamic decision-making processes for catastrophe risk management. It cuts across multiple academic fields, i.e. geophysics, engineering seismology, earthquake engineering, and coastal engineering. The timeliness and critical needs for cascading multi-hazards impact assessments have been exemplified by recent catastrophes. CRUST fills the current gap between quasi-static, fragmented approaches for multi-hazards and envisaged, dynamic, coherent frameworks for cascading hazards. CRUST combines a wide range of state-of-the-art hazard and risk models into a comprehensive methodology by taking into account uncertainty associated with predictions of hazards and risks. The work will provide multi-hazards risk assessment guidelines and tools for policy-makers and engineering/reinsurance industries. The proposal capitalises on a breakthrough technology for generating long-waves achieved by Rossetto. CRUST is composed of four work packages (WPs): WP1-'Ground shaking risk modelling due to mega-thrust subduction earthquakes'; WP2-'Tsunami wave and fragility modelling due to mega-thrust subduction earthquakes'; WP3-'Integrated multi-hazards modelling for earthquake shaking and tsunami'; and WP4-'Case studies for the Hikurangi and Cascadia subduction zones'. In WP1-WP3, the research adopts the 2011 Tohoku earthquake as a case study site, since this event offers extensive datasets for strong motion data, tsunami inundation, and building damage survey results, together with other geographical and demographical information (e.g. high-resolution bathymetry data and digital elevation model). The aims of WP1 are: to generate strong motion time-histories based on uncertain earthquake slips, reflecting multiple asperities (large slip patches) over a fault plane (WP1-1); to characterise spatiotemporal occurrence of aftershocks using global catalogues of subduction earthquakes (WP1-2); and to conduct probabilistic seismic performance assessment of structures subjected to mainshock-aftershock sequences (WP1-3). WP2 comprises tsunami wave profile and inundation simulation using uncertain earthquake slips (WP2-1); characterisation of tsunami loads to structures in coastal areas through large-scale physical experiments using an innovative long wave generation system at HR Wallingford (WP2-2); and development of analytical tsunami fragility models in comparison with field observations and experiments (WP2-3). The WP2 will be conducted in collaboration with academic collaborators from Kyoto University and Tohoku University (Japan). WP3 integrates the model components developed from WP1 and WP2 into a comprehensive framework for multi-hazards risk assessment for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (WP3-1). Then, practical engineering tools for the multi-hazards method will be developed in WP3-2. Finally, in WP4, the developed multi-hazards methodology will be applied to the Hikurangi and Cascadia subduction zones. The assessments are done in a predictive mode, and these case studies will be conducted in close collaboration with academic partners, GNS Science (New Zealand) for the Hikurangi zone, and researchers at Western University and University of British Columbia (Canada) for the Cascadia zone.

Seismic hazard assessment and understanding of continental deformation are hindered by unexplained slip-rate fluctuations on faults, associated with (a) temporal clusters of damaging earthquakes lasting 100s to 1000s of years, and (b) longer-term fault quiescence lasting tens to hundreds of millennia. We propose a new unified hypothesis explaining both (a) and (b), involving stress interactions between fault/shear-zones and neighbouring fault/shear-zones; however key data to test this are lacking. We propose measurements and modelling to test our hypothesis, which have the potential to quantify the processes that control continental faulting and fluctuations in the rates of expected earthquake occurrence, with high societal impact. Our aspiration is that cities and critical facilities worldwide will gain additional protection from seismic hazard through use of the calculations we pioneer herein. The background is that slip-rate fluctuations hinder understanding because they introduce uncertainty about whether specific faults are active or not. For example, a review in Japan of earthquake risk to critical facilities, such as the Tsuruga nuclear power plant (NPP), revealed a geological fault under a nuclear reactor (Chapman et al. 2014). The question that arose was whether the fault was active or not. Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) has guidelines defining fault activity, and considered the fault under the reactor to be active, evidenced by faulting in sediments <~125,000 years in age. The Japan Atomic Energy Power Company (JPAC) disagreed, following study by an independent team of geoscientists. In 2014, the Tsuruga NPP remained closed due to ongoing debate between the NRA and JPAC, with similar debates ongoing for other NPPs. We suggest that defining fault activity as simply "active" or "inactive" is unsatisfactory because it is debatable even amongst experts. In fact a fault that has not slipped in many millennia may, in reality, not be inactive, but instead may simply have a low slip-rate, with the capability to host a damaging earthquake after a long recurrence interval. Our breakthrough is we think slip-rate fluctuations over both timescales (a and b) are a continuum, sharing a common cause involving interaction between fault/shear-zones. For the first time, we provide calculations that describe this interaction, quantifying slip-rate fluctuations and seismic hazard in terms of probabilities. We show that slip during an earthquake cluster on a brittle fault in the upper crust occurs in tandem with high strain-rate on the viscous shear-zone underlying the fault. This deformation of the crust produces changes in differential stress on neighbouring fault/shear-zones. Viscous strain-rate is known to be proportional to differential stress, so, given data on slip-rate fluctuations one can calculate changes in differential stress, and then calculate implied changes to viscous strain-rates on receiver shear zones and slip-rates on their overlying brittle faults. We provide a quantified example covering several millennia, but lack data allowing a test over tens to hundreds of millennia. If we can verify our hypothesis over both timescales, through successful replication of measurements via modelling, we will have identified and quantified a hitherto unknown fundamental geological process. We will study the Athens region, Greece, where a special set of geological attributes allows us to measure and model slip-rate fluctuation over both time scales (a and b), the key data combination never achieved to date. We know of no other quantified explanation that links slip-rate fluctuations over the two timescales; the significance and impact of accomplishing this is that it has the potential to change the way we mitigate hazard for cities and critical facilities. Chapman et al. 2014, Active faults and nuclear power plants, EOS, 95, 4

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

A spin-polarised electron current has been widely investigated to realise new spintronic device application. For example, spin-transfer torque induced by a spin-polarised electron current offers a fundamental physical mechanism on current-induced magnetisation switching (CIMS) as well as domain-wall motion in a ferromagnetic (FM) nanowire. The spin-transfer torque was predicted by Berger and Slonczewski independently, and has been experimentally demonstrated. By spin-scattering layer insertion and shape modification for a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) nanopillar, a critical current density for switching has been reduced to satisfy a Gbit-scale requirement for a magnetic random access memory (MRAM), a 4-Mbit version of which has been introduced by Freescale (now EverSpin Technologies) in 2006. MRAM is expected to replace a Si-based RAM due to the non-volatility and the better thermal stability. Recently, coherent tunnelling in an Fe/MgO/Fe system has been predicted to achieve over 1000% tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) and experimentally observed in epitaxial/highly-oriented Fe(Co)/MgO/Fe(Co) junctions. Such coherent tunnelling has been implemented into a nano-pillar to demonstrate the CIMS with 160% TMR ratio at room temperature. By combining the large TMR ratio with the substantial decrease in critical current density down to 2.5x10^6 A/cm2, the requirement for beyond the Gbit-scale MRAM application is satisfied. Hence, government-initiatives have been applied to develop a commercial Gbit MRAM both in the USA and Japan.Recent development in nanometre-scale fabrication techniques will enable us to expand a vertical GMR nanopillar into a lateral configuration, consisting of ferromagnetic nanowires and a non-magnetic nanowire to bridge over the spin injector and detector, enabling precise control of dimensions. In such a lateral spin-valve configuration, spin-polarised electrons can be injected with an electron charge current (local geometry) and without a charge current (non-local geometry). Using non-local geometry pioneering work has been performed by Jedema et al., successfully demonstrating diffusive spin injection from a ferromagnetic Ni80Fe20 nano-electrode, spin accumulation in a non-magnetic Cu nano-wire and spin detection by another NiFe nano-electrode. They have further extended their study into ballistic spin injection by inserting an AlOx tunnel barrier (insulator, I) at the FM/non-magnet (NM) interfaces. Consequently non-local spin-valve systems have been extensively employed to achieve efficient spin injection by minimising interfacial scattering in both diffusive and ballistic contacts and also to detect both spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effects. This clearly indicates the advantages of the lateral device configurations.In this proposed project, we will employ a lateral spin-valve structure instead of a conventional nano-pillar to demonstrate efficient generation of a spin voltage and current, which is not associated with an electron-charge current and hence minimises the Joule heating. In our proposed devices, both a spin current and a spin-polarised electron-charge current will be used to detect the spin voltage/current generation in non-local and local measurement geometries, respectively by changing the measurement geometries. In the non-local geometry , a spin current can be injected efficiently into a non-magnet through a tunnel barrier and detected as a large spin voltage through a second tunnel barrier. This gives a large spin current through a metallic interface. Our proposed device will therefore act independently as a pure spin-voltage and spin-current source with high efficiency. The evaluation of the pure spin-voltage and current will reveal the fundamental mechanism of spin-current transport (without an electron charge), which will encourage further theoretical studies for better understanding of the spin current and will also lead a new type of device architecture.