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Materials Design Engineering Lab
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A lab that explores how the properties of materials arise, from the viewpoint of electrons and atoms.
AboutAbout the lab
How material properties arise, starting from atoms
The Matsunaga Lab studies how the microscopic structures and properties of materials arise, from the viewpoint of electronic states and atomic arrangements.
The lab aims to understand these mechanisms and lead them to the creation of new materials.
In addition to theoretical calculations with parallel computers, the lab is equipped with instruments for sample processing and for examining electrical properties and deformation, so it investigates materials through both computation and experiment.
Key terms
- Hydroxyapatite
- A compound, a type of calcium phosphate, that makes up bone and teeth
- Dislocation
- A line-shaped region in a crystal where the atomic arrangement is displaced. The movement of dislocations makes a material change shape
- Grain boundaries
- In a material made of many small crystal grains, the boundary where grains meet one another
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Yokoi's paper is selected as the cover art of Nano Letters
A student receives the 34th Scholarship Award from the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials and the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan
A master's student receives the Outstanding Poster Award at the 2026 Spring Meeting of the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials
A student receives the 33rd Scholarship Award from the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials and the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan
A master's student receives the Outstanding Poster Award at the 2024 Autumn Meeting of the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to understand how the microscopic structures and properties of materials arise, from the viewpoint of electronic states and atomic arrangements, and to lead this understanding to the creation of new materials. Through theoretical calculations and experiments linked to them, it investigates biomaterials and the structures and properties of defects and boundaries inside crystals.
*Illustrative imageCeramics That Form Bone and Teeth
Through theoretical calculations and experiments linked to them, the lab investigates what kinds of structural changes bioceramics such as hydroxyapatite, which forms bone and teeth, undergo in the body. It aims to establish the materials science of new biomaterials.
*Illustrative imageDislocations and Deformation of Materials
The lab studies dislocations, the crystal defects responsible for the deformation of inorganic materials, at the atomic level. It discovered that zinc sulfide crystals deform greatly in the dark, and it continues to study how light and electrons affect dislocations.
*Illustrative imageStructures and Properties of Grain Boundaries
Many materials are made up of a collection of small crystal grains. The lab investigates the atomic arrangements and properties of grain boundaries, the interfaces between grains, through theoretical calculations, and is also working on predicting them quickly and accurately using machine learning.
MembersFaculty
The Matsunaga Lab consists of faculty members, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and secretaries.As of 2026
- ProfessorKatsuyuki Matsunaga
- Associate ProfessorTatsuya Yokoi
- Assistant ProfessorYu Ogura
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Multicrystalline silicon wafer with thin film iridescence” Radiotrefoil / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Ceramics That Form Bone and Teeth: “Apatite crystal (GeoDIL number - 23)” Dexter Perkins / CC0 (cropped)
- Dislocations and Deformation of Materials: “Sphalerite - Creede, Mineral County, Colorado, USA” Ivar Leidus / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Structures and Properties of Grain Boundaries: “Металлографическая микроструктура титана” Surface engineering / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Electron Beam Nanophysics and Engineering Lab): “Transmission Electron Microscope Kemira” kallerna / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Biomolecular Physics and Engineering Lab): “I-Tasser protein model of LRRC73 with negative cluster” Sukeerthic / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fundamental Condensed Matter Engineering Lab): “Superconductor ring and magnet in levitation” Julien Bobroff (user:Jubobroff), Frederic Bouquet (user:Fbouquet), LPS, Orsay, France / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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