Realizing the full potential of nanodevices will require the ability to place individual elements that are much smaller than the width of a human hair in precise, 3-D configurations.  We have developed new materials that allow us to use light and/or electric fields to position individual micro- or nanostructures in precise locations in three dimensions and then to lock them into place using short pulses of light from a laser.  This “trap-and-zap” scheme is being used to create new types of optical, electronic and mechanical devices based on nanotechnology.  Shown here are 2D pattern (top),

  Scalable templated growth of graphene nanoribbons on SiC: Direct nanoribbon growth avoids the need for damaging post-processing.

UMD MRSEC has developed an exciting nanoscience demonstration known as the  Giant Buckyball.  The Giant C60, along with the smaller C20, has been used in a variety of venues including museums such as the Smithsonian Spark!Lab in Washington, DC and Port Discovery Children’s Museum in Baltimore, MD; summer camps; and science festivals to engage students and their families in the exploration of research science and engineering.

Device characteristics under dark and illumination

Transition-metal oxides (TMO), such as molybdenum tri-oxide (MoO3), are promising hole-injection electrode materials for organic electronics because of their large work function and high conductivity. They are superior to the widely used organic polymer PEDOT:PSS which causes device degradation. However, deposition of MoO3 layers from high-temperature sources is problematical for flexible organic-based electronics.

Graphene in its pristine form is one of the strongest materials, but defects influence its strenth.  Using atomistic calculations, we find that, counter to standard reasoning, graphene sheets with large-angle tilt boundaries that have a high density of defects are as strong as the pristine material and unexpectedly are much stronger than those with low-angle boundaries having fewer defects.  We show that this trend is not explained by continuum fracture models but can be understood by considering the critical bonds in the strained seven-membered carbon rings that lead to failure; the large-

A weeklong materials science workshop series with morning lectures followed by hands-on lab exercises to reinforce concepts for introduction of materials-related content into core science curricula at the home institution Organized and taught by MRSEC faculty investigators Partnership with the Faculty Resource Network at NYU, held during the FRN Network Summer program Content Holographic Video Microscopy Crystals and Light How Stuff Packs Color

Background: The tetrahedral coordination of Fe surrounded by 4 Se(Te) atoms is of crucial importance for the new high TC Fe pnictides superconductors with lattice parameters c and a. To reveal the essential aspects of the tetrahedron, one needs to vary the lattice parameter c and a in opposite manner, without altering the electronic

An isostatic lattice is one at the threshold of mechanical stability. The square and kagome lattices (see Figure 1a-b) in two dimensions are examples of isostatic lattices. A 2D kagome lattice of N sites has of order N1/2 zero-energy bulk modes under periodic boundary conditions. Theoretical study shows that when neighboring triangles are counter rotated through an arbitrary angle α shown in Figure 1c, the bulk modulus vanishes, making the Poisson's ratio equal to -1, and all of the