The Nebraska MRSEC Professor/Student Pairs Program brings in professor/student pairs from non-research intensive four-year institutions to conduct research with Nebraska MRSEC scientists. The goal is to provide a research experience which benefits both the participants and the MRSEC projects. For the professor, this program provides an opportunity to conduct new research, access to facilities typically unavailable at their home institution, and make strong and lasting connections with MRSEC researchers. For the student, this program provides an opportunity to conduct world-class research and exposure to new and different expertise and capabilities.
How can we design materials in which electric fields can change the magnetization? Nebraska MRSEC researchers have demonstrated that this may be achieved by combining a ferroelectric, a material with a permanent electric polarization that produces a large electric field, with a ferromagnet. Using a very thin cobalt film (only a few atoms thick) overlaid with a soft, plastic ferroelectric the researchers altered the direction of the magnetization by switching the polarization of the ferroelectric.
The efficiency of the photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric-photovoltaic devices is low due to the low solar light absorption efficiency, low electric conductivity, and short lifetime of photoinduced charge carriers. MRSEC researchers at the University of Nebraska come up with a method for overriding these constraints by combining the strong polarization electric field from a ferroelectric material with the strong absorption and conduction capabilities of polymer semiconductors. With rationale of their device design, the efficiency of organic ferroelectric photovoltaic can be higher than that of both organic photovoltaic and ferroelectric photovoltaic.
The University of Nebraska held its third Women in Physics Conference October 20-22, 2011, organized by MRSEC faculty member Axel Enders. The theme of this year’s conference was “Materials Girls.” The conference highlighted progress in Materials Science done by undergraduate women in physics, chemistry, and engineering at colleges and universities. Over 75 undergraduate students from 24 states participated in this year’s conference and most of the students presented either invited oral talks or posters.
High conductivity and efficient charge injection into organic layers could lead to the design of more efficient organic solar cells and molecular electronics, especially light emitting diodes. Most organic materials are however insulators and only few exhibit high conducting properties. Nebraska MRSEC researchers in collaboration with their colleagues at University of Puerto Rico have discovered that zwitterion molecules of the p-benzoquinonemonoimine type are different from being a standard insulator.
Nebraska MRSEC researchers in collaboration with their colleagues at Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan have predicted and demonstrated that interface engineering may be efficiently used to stabilize ferroelectric polarization at the nanoscale.