Professor Xavier Moya

Thermal materials

My research focuses on phase transitions in functional materials whose thermal, structural, magnetic and electrical properties display strong coupling. These materials include multiferroics, and offer plenty of scope for interesting science and useful applications.

Caloric effects

Magnetocaloric, electrocaloric and mechanocaloric effects are reversible thermal changes that occur in magnetically, electrically and mechanically responsive materials due to changes in magnetic field, electric field and stress field. These caloric effects are largest near magnetic, ferroelectric and structural phase transitions, and promise new solid-state cooling technologies. I aim to develop new caloric materials systems by exploiting different types of coupling within and between materials.

Magnetoelectric effects

Magnetoelectric coupling permits an electrical polarization to be modified by magnetic field (direct effect), or a magnetization to be modified by electric field (converse effect). I investigate geometry-dependent strain-mediated coupling between ferroelectric materials and ferromagnetic materials near phase transitions. These systems yield large magnetoelectric effects at room temperature, and are interesting for applications in sensors, actuators and data storage.

• 2012: M.A., University of Cambridge, UK
• 2003-2008: Ph.D. in Physics, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
• 1999-2003: B.Sc. in Physics, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

• 2024 Breakthrough Energy Fellow. Breakthrough Energy, founded by Bill Gates
• 2024 Elected member of the International Science Council’s global roster of experts
• 2023 Elected member of the UK Young Academy, an interdisciplinary academy operating under the auspices of the Royal Society
• 2019 Global Cooling Prize (Mission Innovation, co-led by the UK Government, and the US Rocky Mountain Institute)
• 2017 Emerging Talent Prize 2017 (Spanish Society of Researchers in the UK and the Santander Foundation)
• 2016 Young Researcher in Experimental Physics Prize 2016 (Spanish Royal Society of Physics and the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Foundation)
• 2009 Ramon Margalef Prize. Prize awarded by the University of Barcelona to the best work derived from a Ph.D. in Science

X. Moya and N. D. Mathur, “Caloric materials for cooling and heating”, Science 370, 797 (2020).

A. Aznar, P. Lloveras, J. Kim, E. Stern-Taulats, M. Barrio, J. Ll. Tamarit, C. F. Sánchez-Valdés, J. L. Sánchez Llamazares, N. D. Mathur, and X. Moya, “Giant and reversible inverse barocaloric effects near room temperature in ferromagnetic MnCoGeB0.03”, Advanced Materials 31, 1903577 (2019).

P. Lloveras, E. Stern-Taulats, M. Barrio, J.-Ll. Tamarit, S. Crossley, W. Li, V. Pomjakushin, A. Planes, Ll. Mañosa, N. D. Mathur and X. Moya, “Giant barocaloric effects at low pressure in ferrielectric ammonium sulphate”, Nature Communications 6, 8801 (2015).

X. Moya, E. Defay, V. Heine and N. D. Mathur, “Too cool to work”, Nature Physics 11, 202 (2015).

X. Moya, S. Kar-Narayan and N. D. Mathur, “Caloric materials near ferroic phase transitions”, Nature Materials 13, 439 (2014).

X. Moya, E. Stern-Taulats, S. Crossley, D. González-Alonso, S. Kar-Narayan, A. Planes, Ll. Mañosa and N. D. Mathur, “Giant electrocaloric strength in single-crystal BaTiO3”, Advanced Materials 25, 1360 (2013).

X. Moya, L. E. Hueso, F. Maccherozzi, A. I. Tovstolytkin, D. I. Podyalovskii, C. Ducati, L. C. Phillips, M. Ghidini, O. Hovorka, A. Berger, M. E. Vickers, E. Defay, S. S. Dhesi and N. D. Mathur, “Giant and reversible extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films due to strain”, Nature Materials 12, 52 (2013).