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MRSEC researchers have discovered a missing spatial operation in nature called rotation-reversal symmetry that reverses the sense of all static rotations in a crystal.  Certain minerals, organic crystals or metamaterials are composed of subunits that can exist in two states: clockwise or counter-clockwise rotated.  The symmetry of a crystal lattice helps determine the material’s properties, and certain properties can only exist in lattices with special symmetries.  In perovskite complex oxides, for example,  oxygen cages counter-rotate (see image); these crystals have twice as many

  NanoFabulous, a mini-exhibition developed by the University of Maryland, College Park Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) is on display at Port Discovery Children’s Museum in Baltimore, MD. The exhibit is designed to help children and their families understand how scientists and engineers discover and invent new materials from nanoscale building-blocks.

Center researchers are collaborating with spin-off Displaytech (now part of Micron Technologies) to develop ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) materials for application in picoprojectors.  The high-quality time sequential color and high brightness enabled by FLC switching speed, and high fill factor and ultra-small pixels achievable with FLCs makes FLC-on-silicon the choice display technology for picoprojectors.

In an effort, spearheaded by Triangle MRSEC, we received support through the NSF-MRI program for the purchase of Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) instrumentation. The state-of-the-art instruments will serve the greater Research Triangle community for research and education, and will be housed in Duke's Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility (SMIF).

Intellectual Merit:

Metals have many disadvantages as components of optical metamaterials. Semiconductor-based materials overcome these problems. We build a high performance, all-semiconductor-based metamaterial by replacing metal with heavily-doped zinc oxide and demonstrate negative refraction in this near-infrared metamaterial. This demonstration could lead to real-world metamaterial devices and unravel many new physical phenomena.  

A range of amorphous structures for a single chemical-composition material (Indium Oxide) were observed; the structure dependent on the growth conditions. The carrier mobility and film (not carrier) density of the films was dependent on growth temperature. Films grown at 0°C and below are amorphous The film density decreased from 7.0 g/cm3 at 0°C to 5.4 g/cm3 at -100°C; the carrier mobility decrease from ~57 cm2/V•s to ~20 cm2/V•s over this same temperature range. The peak in mobility at 0°C adds to the body

Researchers in the Soft Materials Research Center of the University of Colorado Boulder have employed dynamic covalent chemistry to make cross-links that can be controlled optically, enabling materials that can be softened or changed in shape by light.

Mucus clearance is the primary defense mechanism that protects airways from inhaled infectious and toxic agents. In the current Gel-on-Liquid mucus clearance model mucus gel is propelled on top of a “watery” periciliary layer surrounding the cilia. However, this model fails to explain the formation of distinct mucus layer in health or why mucus clearance fails in disease. We propose a Gel-on-Brush model in which the periciliary layer is occupied by membrane spanning mucins and mucopolysaccharides densely tethered to the airway surface.