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The Triangle MRSEC enjoys a vibrant ongoing partnership with German researchers supported through an International Graduate Research and Training Grant (IGRTG) from the DFG. A significant component of this partnership is extended graduate student exchanges. An example of funded projects is the fundamental modeling of particle gelation by molecular dynamics simulations by Prof. Sabine Klapp (Technical Univ. - Berlin), Carol Hall and Orlin Velev.

Ming Ruan, Yike Hu, James Palmer, Tom Guo, John Hankinson, Rui Dong, Claire Berger, Walt de Heer School of Physics, Georgia Tech

The goal of this seed project is to bring first-principles theory closer to experimental reality by accounting for the finite temperature effects that are essential for describing the behavior of “real-world” materials at their typical operating conditions.

Founded by physical chemists like Flory and brought into the mainstream of theoretical physics by visionaries like de Gennes, over the last eighty years polymer physics has grown into a mature, rich, and exciting discipline. Now expanded to include also colloids, liquid crystals, interfaces, etc, polymer and soft matter physics span fundamental statistical mechanics and field theory, most advanced materials, as well as technological and biological frontiers.

Edward H. Conrad and Claire Berger School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology

Topological surface states are a new class of novel electronic states that are potentially useful for quantum computing or spintronicapplications. Unlike conventional two-dimensional electron states, these surface states are expected to be immune to localization and to overcome barriers caused by material imperfection. Previous experiments have demonstrated that topological surface states do not backscatter between equal and opposite momentum states, due to their chiralspin texture.

Intergrain stitching determines electrical conductance across graphene grain boundaries The outstanding electronic and mechanical properties of single-atom-thick layers of carbon, so-called “graphene” films, make them ideal for next-generation solar cells and transistors. However, attempts to grow these films over large areas invariably lead to quilt-like structures of interconnected atomically-perfect patches

MRSEC researchers from Princeton University have discovered a surprising on-chip process for growing ultrathin superconductors on ultrathin layers of transitionmetal dichalcogenides (TMD).