Tackling grand challenges in the materials science of liquids and glasses and non-equilibrium magnetism.
Colloidal gels are formed by aggregation of particles into a percolating network in liquid media. Although colloidal gels exhibit self-supporting, solid-like properties that underlie the design of a wide range of materials, how this class of soft solids forms is not yet fully understood. In particular, the relative importance of thermodynamic and dynamic (non-equilibrium) phenomena …
By: Jon McCarthy and Nicholas L. Abbott An industrial consortium coordinated by the Wisconsin MRSEC has now grown from a single member in 2007 to six large international companies, three mid-size, thirteen small companies, one venture firm, one regional association, and one research park. To explore how the industrial consortium can expand further its geographical reach …
By: S.E. Babcock, T.F. Kuech, L. J. Mawst The presence of chemical species on a surface can radically change the surface chemical kinetics associated with atom placement and crystal growth. Recently, IRG1 researchers at the Wisconsin MRSEC completed a comparative study of the effect on epilayer composition and structural properties of reactant sequencing during the metalorganic …
By: S.E. Babcock, A.S. Brown, T.F. Kuech The nanoscale structural and compositional features of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown GaAs1−yBiy films have been successfully characterized with unprecedented precision by researchers of the Wisconsin MRSEC using high-resolution x-ray diffractometry and high-resolution high-angle annular dark field (HAADF or “Z-contrast”) imaging in a scanning transmission electron microscope. The spots on …
By: J. W. Spalenka, P. Gopalan, H. E. Katz, and P. G. Evans Solution deposited ZnO films are technologically promising materials with potential applications in large-area electronics on flexible substrates, as transparent circuit elements, and as a transparent electrode materials. However, at small film thicknesses (<50 nm), the regime where transparency and mechanical flexibility are greatest, …
The electronic properties of thin films with thicknesses of only a single molecular layer have in the past typically been far worse than thicker films of the same material. Recent studies by IRG2 of the Wisconsin MRSEC have now discovered that monolayer-thickness two-dimensional layers of α,ω-dihexylsexithiophene (α,ω-DH6T) exhibit field-effect hole mobility of up to 0.032 …
By: M. Rajendram, H. Tuson, V. Smeianov, K. Ngo, M. M. Cox, D. Weibel Researchers in IRG3 of the Wisconsin MRSEC are studying bacteria to understand principles by which nature designs materials to achieve dynamic spatial targeting of molecules. Recently, the researchers have discovered that the spatial organization of phospholipids at the curved regions of bacterial …