Jan K. Zaręba – Institute of Advanced Materials

Research interests

My research interests revolve around the investigation of stimulus-induced (temperature, pressure) structural phase transitions in MOFs, coordination polymers, and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites. He primarily uses femtosecond lasers to study the high-intensity light interactions with crystalline matter, which can result in many nonlinear optical emissions, amongst others, second harmonic generation (SHG), third harmonic generation (THG), and two-photon excited luminescence (2PEL). These phenomena provide valuable insights into the nature and mechanisms of structural transitions in functional materials. In particular, SHG, a second-order nonlinear optical process, is especially revealing of noncentrosymmetric order, a crucial requirement for properties like piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and ferroelectricity in functional materials.

ORCID 0000-0001-6117-6876

Selected publications

The full publication list can be found on Jan K. Zaręba’s website or Google Scholar profile.

Samanta, R.; Panday, R.; Sahoo, A.; Singh, N.; Khator, K.R.; Sahoo, R.; Sharma, V. B.; Kabra, D.; Zaręba, J. K.*; Ghosh, D.; Senanayak, S.P.; Boomishankar R., A Homochiral Neutral Organic Molecule as Active Ferroelectric for Memtransistor, Advanced Functional Materials, 2025, art. 2501546, early view, doi: 10.1002/adfm.202501546
Ghosh, A.; Menon, S.; Biswas, S.; Sahoo, S.; Dey, A.; Boomishankar, R.; Zaręba, J. K.; Waghmare, U.V.; Maji T. K., Ferrielectric Dipolar Ordering in a Donor–Acceptor Based Covalent–Organic Framework for Piezocatalytic Water Splitting, Advanced Functional Materials, 2025, art. 2502787, early view, doi: 10.1002/adfm.202502787
Sahoo, S.; Mukherjee, S.; Sharma, V.B.; Hernández, W.I.; Garcia-Castro, A.C.; Zaręba, J.K.;* Kabra, D.; Vaitheeswaran, G.; Boomishankar, R., A Chiral B‐N Adduct as a New Frontier in Ferroelectrics and Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, Angewandte Chemie – International Edition, 2024, 63 (18) e202400366
Mączka, M.; Zaręba, J. K.*; Nowok, A.; Sokołowski, N.; Sieradzki, A.; Gągor, A.; Ptak, M., Two-Dimensional Lead Iodide Perovskites with Extremely Reduced Dielectric Confinement: Embedded Self-Erasing Second-Harmonic Generation Switching, Thermochromism, and Photoluminescence, Chemistry of Materials, 2024, 36 (21), 10758–10772.
Mączka, M.; Zaręba, J. K.*; Gągor, A.; Fedoruk-Piskorska, K.; Stefańska, D.; Drozdowski, D.; Ptak, M.; Sieradzki, A., Multi-Noncentrosymmetric Polar Order in 2D Hybrid Lead Chloride with Broadband Emission and High-Temperature Second-Harmonic Generation Switching, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2024, 16 (44) 60564–60575.
Fedoruk-Piskorska, K.; Zaręba, J.K.; Zelewski, S.J.; Gągor, A.; Mączka, M.; Drobczyński, Sieradzki, A., Three-State Dielectric Switching within a Narrow Temperature Range in Isopropylammonium Lead Iodide: a One-Dimensional Perovskite with Polar Phase, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2024, 16 (22), 28829 – 28837.
Mączka, M., Ptak, M., Gągor, A. , Zaręba, J. K., Liang, X., Balčiu̅nas, S., Semenikhin, O. A., Kucheriv, O. I., Gural’skiy, I.A., Shova, S. , Walsh, A. Banys, J. Šimėnas, M., Phase Transitions, Dielectric Response, and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Aziridinium Lead Halide Perovskites 2023, Chemistry of Materials 35 (22), 9725–9738.
Deswal, S., Panday, R., Naphade, D.R., Cazade, P.A., Guerin, S., Zaręba, J.K.,* Steiner, A., Ogale, S., Anthopoulos, T.D., Boomishankar, R., Design and Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Properties of a Ferroelectric Cyclophosphazene Salt 2023, Small, art. no. 2300792.
Rejnhardt, P., Zaręba, J. K., Katrusiak, A., Daszkiewicz M., Deuteration-enhanced negative thermal expansion and negative area compressibility in a three-dimensional hydrogen bonded network 2023, Chemistry of Materials 35 (13), 5160–5167.
Sahoo, S., Kothavade, P., Naphade, D.R, Torris, A., Praveenkumar, B., Zaręba, J.K.,* Anthopoulos, T.D., Shanmuganathan, K., Boomishankar, R., 3D-printed Polymer Composite Devices Based on a Ferroelectric Chiral Ammonium Salt for High-Performance Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting 2023, Materials Horizons 10, 3153-3161. I
Roleder, K., Catalan, G., Glazer, A. M., Baker, J. S., Ko, J.-H., Naqvi, F. H., Junaid, S. B., Majchrowski, A., Trybuła, Z., Zaręba, J., Lazar, I., Kajewski, D., Koperski, J., Soszyński, A., Weak low-temperature polarity in a PbZrO₃ single crystal 2023, Physical Review B 107, art. L140102.
Vijayakanth, T., Sahoo, S., Kothavade, P., Bhan Sharma, V., Kabra, D., Zaręba, J.K.*, Shanmuganathan, K., Boomishankar, R. A Ferroelectric Aminophosphonium Cyanoferrate with a Large Electrostrictive Coefficient as a Piezoelectric Nanogenerator 2023, Angewandte Chemie – International Edition, 62 (3), art. e202214984.
Burger, S., Hemmer, K., Mayer, D.C., Vervoorts, P., Daisenberger, D., Zaręba, J.K., Kieslich, G. Designing Geometric Degrees of Freedom in ReO₃-Type Coordination Polymers 2022, Advanced Functional Materials, 32 (44), art. 2205343.
Mączka, M., Nowok, A., Zarȩba, J.K.*, Stefańska, D., Gągor, A., Trzebiatowska, M., Sieradzki, A. Near-Infrared Phosphorescent Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskite with High-Contrast Dielectric and Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Switching Functionalities 2022, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 14 (1), 1460-1471.
Zaręba, J.K., Nyk, M., Samoć, M. Nonlinear Optical Properties of Emerging Nano- and Microcrystalline Materials 2021, Advanced Optical Materials, 9 (23), art. 2100216.
Mączka, M., Zarȩba, J.K., Gągor, A., Stefańska, D., Ptak, M., Roleder, K., Kajewski, D., Soszyński, A., Fedoruk, K., Sieradzki, A. [Methylhydrazinium]₂PbBr₄, a Ferroelectric Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskite with Multiple Nonlinear Optical Outputs 2021, Chemistry of Materials, 33 (7), 2331-2342.
Mayer, D. C.^#; Zarȩba, J. K.^#; Raudaschl-Sieber, G.; Pöthig, A.; Chołuj, M.; Zaleśny, R.; Samoć, M.; Fischer, R. A., Postsynthetic Framework Contraction Enhances the Two-Photon Absorption Properties of Pillar-Layered Metal-Organic Frameworks. Chemistry of Materials 2020, 32 (13), 5682-5690.
Maçzka, M.; Gagor, A.; Zaręba, J. K.; Stefanska, D.; Drozd, M.; Balciunas, S.; Šimenas, M.; Banys, J.; Sieradzki, A., Three-dimensional perovskite methylhydrazinium lead chloride with two polar phases and unusual second-harmonic generation bistability above room temperature. Chemistry of Materials 2020, 32, (9), 4072-4082.
Mączka, M.; Ptak, M.; Gągor, A.; Stefańska, D.; Zarȩba, J. K.; Sieradzki, A., Methylhydrazinium Lead Bromide: Noncentrosymmetric Three-Dimensional Perovskite with Exceptionally Large Framework Distortion and Green Photoluminescence. Chemistry of Materials 2020, 32 (4), 1667-1673.
Zaręba, J. K.*; Nyk, M.; Janczak, J.; Samoć, M., Three-Photon Absorption of Coordination Polymer Transforms UV-to-VIS Thermometry into NIR-to-VIS Thermometry. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2019, 11 (11), 10435-10441.
Medishetty, R.^#; Zarȩba, J. K.^#; Mayer, D.; Samoć, M.; Fischer, R. A., Nonlinear optical properties, upconversion and lasing in metal-organic frameworks. Chemical Society Reviews 2017, 46 (16), 4976-5004.

Degrees

2020

PhD

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Distinctions and professional service

Dionizy Smoleński Research Award – 2022
Polish Prime Minister Prize for the best doctoral thesis defended in 2020 (received 2021)
Laureate of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology Secundus program in 2023, 2022, 2021
Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education program for Outstanding Young Scientists in 2019
Laureate of the START 2018 program from the Foundation for Polish Science
Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education stipend for PhD students for the academic year 2017/2018
Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education stipend for students for the academic year 2013/2014