We will build a European research consortium on novel magnetocaloric materials based on self-organized and strongly interacting magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) assemblies; namely, supercrystals. It is an inter-disciplinary and cross-sector R&D project combining concepts and techniques from chemistry, physics and device engineering with active participations from SME partners. Both experimental and theoretical approaches will be employed to build foundational knowledge of the magneto-caloric phenomena in supercrystals and to enhance their performance. Successful building of consortium and the securing of research funding will allow development of radically new magnetocaloric materials that are eco-friendly and abundant, giving head-start advantages to European and French R&D communities working in the energy-efficiency and refrigeration technology sectors. The application possibility of novel magnetic refrigeration technology is large; spanning from micro-electronics, medical (organ) preservation, to air-conditioning efficiency improvements. These targets echo focus areas announced by the European Commission’s H2020 Work Programme of Societal Challenge 3 “Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy.” Our immediate goal is to build a coherent and successful project to be submitted to the next and the only FET-Proactive call (Area 4: New technologies for energy and functional materials) of 2016-2017 Work Programme of Horizon 2020 in April 2016. However, the foundational and interdisciplinary character of MACALONS will allow its submission to subsequent FET-OPEN in September 2016, if necessary.

We will develop a conceptually new paradigm for creating periodic landscapes of functional flexible magnetic nanostructures with modified physical properties. This goal will be achieved by applying femtosecond laser lithography to complex magnetic materials, well beyond the current state-of-the-art; we will develop ultrafast non-equilibrium thermodynamic methods for creating well-defined geometries without any additional lithography processes. The innovative character of this (patented) new technique lies in the fact that it can create adaptive, reconfigurable structures that consist of two fundamentally different counterparts. One is an amorphous material state, created by fs-laser-melting, and the other is a flexible membrane that can be arbitrary shaped at the nanoscale forming complex landscapes. State-of-the-art ultrafast optical, magneto-optical, magneto-acoustic and ferromagnetic resonance (broadband microwave) spectroscopies will be combined with atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to understand, characterize and tailor the resulting complex multifunctional structures. The long-standing technological challenge of advanced fs-laser nanofabrication (FSLN) will thus be tackled by the consortium. We will design an inexpensive, fast and efficient manufacturing process to provide ultrafast active flexible diffraction gratings and metamaterials of three-dimensional building blocks. The diffraction orders will be externally controlled by time-dependent acoustic and magnetic fields at ultrahigh frequencies. Additionally, the project will provide an accelerated pathway towards industrially mature fs-laser engineering of materials: a potentially disruptive technology in a wide range of applications, so far underused. The suitability of actively controlled photonic devices will establish the roadmap to the industrial prototyping of this technology, including the upscaling by the first European industrial fs-laser platform Manutech USD..