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Highlights

Research achievements from the NSF MIP community.

Research Highlights

Digital Light Processing of Dynamic Bottlebrush Materials
Jan 1, 2022
University of California, Santa Barbara

Digital Light Processing of Dynamic Bottlebrush Materials

Chungryong Choi, Yoichi Okayama, Parker T. Morris, Lindsay L. Robinson, Matthias Gerst, Joshua C. Speros, Craig J. Hawker, Javier Read de Alaniz, Christopher M. Bates
3D printing resins that generate super-soft, dynamic, and self-healable elastomers.
Differential Dynamic Microscopy for the Characterization of Polymer Systems
Jan 1, 2022
University of California, Santa Barbara

Differential Dynamic Microscopy for the Characterization of Polymer Systems

Roberto Cerbino, Fabio Giavazzi, Matthew E. Helgeson
Differential Dynamic Microscopy or “dynamic light scattering on a microscope” enables access to sample dynamics across a wide range of scattering wave-vectors using video microscopy, enabling contemporary polymer science experiments that would otherwise be difficult or impossible with standard light scattering techniques.
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Jan 1, 2022
Cornell University

A PARADIM for Jumpstarting Academic Careers—Update 2022

PARADIM Highlight #56 describes the External User Program (2022), offering free access, training, and staff support to early-career researchers via Materials Innovation Platforms. Projects enable hands-on Materials-by-Design work. The highlight features several assistant professors whose PARADIM activity led to subsequent funding (NSF CAREER, Sloan Fellows, AFOSR YIP, ONR YIP).
Dec 24, 2021
Cornell University

Quantum View of a Superconductor-Semiconductor Junction

Currently, electronic device technology is based mainly on semiconductors.  It first emerged in the middle of the 20:th: century and has improved ever since. Further technological advances including energy efficiency and information security might profit from exploiting quantum mechanical properties that are present in superconductors. The challenge is how to combine the two states and to make sure to get the best of both electrical worlds. A collaboration of researchers from Cornell and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland grew thin films of the superconductor niobium nitride (NbN) on top of gallium nitride (GaN), a semiconductor and vital component in many optical and power electronics. The team measured the electronic properties of the two materials directly at their interface using soft-X-ray angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES).
Figure 1: (a) Sketch of the experimental time-domain terahertz spectroscopy setup. A dc magnetic field is applied along the sample’s c axis in the Faraday geometry (parallel to the THz propagation). (b)-(g) Single-ion states of Fe2+ ions accessible at low energy correspond to S = 1 magnetic moments with uniaxial anisotropy. The sketches represent a plane of spins in the (b) ground state configuration, and examples of (c) a one-magnon elementary excitation (spin wave), (d) a two-magnon bound state (SIBS), (e) a 4-magnon bound state, (f) a 4-magnon antibound state, and (g) a 6-magnon bound state. The gray shadows represent the particular spins that are deviated as compared to the ground state. (h)-(i) Magnitude of the transmission coefficients for (h) right- and (i) left-handed circularly polarized lights (normalized to 1), at T = 4 K, as a function of frequency and magnetic field (horizontal striations are experimental artifacts). (j) Calculated ω[χ′′xx(q=0,ω)+χ′′yy(q=0,ω)] as a function of energy (or associated frequency) and magnetic field.
Dec 20, 2021
Cornell University

Discovery of Multimagnon Bound States in FeI2

Martin Mourigal (Georgia Tech), N. Peter Armitage (Johns Hopkins)
Magnons, or spin waves, are quasiparticles describing collective spin excitations of ordered magnets. When magnon-magnon interactions are strong, new multi-magnon excitations and bound states can emerge. Here, magnetic THz spectroscopy of the layered magnet FeI2 revealed a complex series of excitations beyond the one-magnon picture.
Dec 16, 2021
Cornell University

Metal Selenide-Carbon Nanofiber Composites for Battery Anodes

The ever-growing demand for electric vehicles and portable electronic devices continues to drive the craving for lightweight, high-energy-density, and long-lifespan batteries. Currently used lithium-ion batteries are limited by the capacity of the electrode and the scarcity of resources (lithium). The search for next-generation materials not only seeks to replace lithium with sodium but to provide suitable anode materials. Metal selenides (:M:Se, :M := Sn, Fe, Ni, Cu) offer the desired conductivity, stability, cost-effectiveness, and higher theoretical capacity compared to commercial graphite.
Nov 22, 2021
Cornell University

PARADIM – an Incubator for Collaborations II

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in copper-based oxides (cuprates), there has been a sustained effort to understand its origin and to discover new superconductors based on similar building principles. Indeed, superconductivity has recently been discovered in the doped rare-earth nickelate Nd:0.8:Sr:0.2:NiO:2:. Undoped NdNiO:2: is the infinite-layer end member of a larger family of layered nickelates, which can be explored by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE).
Sep 24, 2021
University of California, Santa Barbara

Uncertainty Quantification and Estimation in Differential Dynamic Microscopy

Mengyang Gu, Matthew Helgeson, Megan Valentine
A statistical analysis that reduces computational times by 25-120 times in Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), was achieved.
Sep 13, 2021
Cornell University

Stromataxy – Enabling the (otherwise) Unreachable

The properties of any material are largely governed by its constituting elements and the arrangement of those atoms. Different structures can result in vastly different behavior, even for the same chemical composition. Thus, to achieve a desired structure—the one with the desired properties—it is vital to be able to navigate synthesis pathways.:Here, users from the Naval Research Lab wanted to grow ScFeO3, where five different ways are known in which the same atoms can be arranged. In the past, different substrates have been used to select between the various polymorphs by altering the energetics of materials growth through a process known as epitaxial stabilization.
Jul 30, 2021
Cornell University

Cleaning up a Quantum Material: from Quantum Enigma to Quantum Oscillations

Sr:2:RuO:4: is the most disorder-sensitive superconductor known. It has also been a leading candidate for a novel type of quantum computer that would enable calculations to occur over much longer time scales before suffering decoherence than is the case for today’s superconductor-based quantum computers.  Establishing whether Sr:2:RuO:4: is viable for such applications would be aided by the ability to make structures containing superconducting Sr:2:RuO:4: films.

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This website is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under the Materials Innovation Platforms (MIP) program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation or the participating institutions. This site is maintained collaboratively by teams supported by NSF MIP awards, independent of NSF.