Search

The use of a prototype “TriBeam” microscope, a scanning electron microscope equipped with a femtosecond laser for rapid serial sectioning, allows 3D views of materials to be obtained. Incorporating both chemical data and crystallographic data has allowed the nature, structure, and crystal orientation of the components to be determined within a 155 μm × 178 μm × 210 μm volume of a biphasic Heusler thermoelectric material. 

The combined results of controlled synthesis, ab-initio molecular-dynamics liquid-quench simulations, thorough structure and property characterization, and accurate density-functional calculations helped identify four major components that govern the electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties of prototype In-based AOSs: (i) deposition temperature; (ii) oxygen stoichiometry; (iii) cation composition; and (iv) lattice strain, Figure.

Since the discovery of Graphene, there has been a significant interest in the search of new 2D materials which would show similar interesting properties such as electrical and thermal conductivity, superconductivity, and topological gap.

Weyl semimetals are newly discovered topological electronic materials in which surface electrons (Fermi arcs) are topologically connected with those of the bulk. Princeton researchers have found experimental evidence that electrons can transverse the bulk through the special momentum states, called Weyl points, moving between opposing surfaces.

MIT MRSEC researchers have demonstrated that the combined action of temperature and mechanical stress can tune the relative stability of electronic defects in semiconducting oxides.

Defects, essentially locations in a crystal where the perfect arrangement of atoms is disturbed, are inherent in materials, and play a key role in their function.

Solution-processed semiconductor and dielectric materials are attractive for satellite technology due to their light-weight, low-voltage operation, and mechanical robustness, but their response to ionizing radiation environments is not well understood.

Nebraska MRSEC sponsored and organized Science Night Live!, a unique event that created opportunities for Nebraska scientists to engage the general public with science in ways that challenged stereotypes about who scientists are, how science is done, and why basic research is valuable. 

IRG1 of the Columbia MRSEC seeks to understand the behavior of van der Waals heterostructures created by assembly of atomically thin layered materials. One important question in this effort is how the relative orientation between the layers affects multiple properties.

Due to enormous challenges associated with theoretical modeling of multicomponent alloys, there are no reliable theoretical predictions available for their composition-dependent properties and structures. Taylor and Schroers have proposed to use combinatorial materials science to address this challenge.