Author: kphillips22

Wisconsin MRSEC researchers in IRG 2 have discovered that the compound TaIrTe4, a transition metal dichalcogenide, when made only a few atomic layers thick and cooled to cryogenic temperatures, transitions into an unusual state called a one-dimensional charge density wave. A charge density wave state exhibits variation in the local density of electrons over distances significantly longer than the distances between the atoms.

Wisconsin MRSEC IRG 1 developed a new generative AI model for metallic glasses, called GlassVAE. The model is based on ideas similar to ChatGPT, but adapted to describe the complex atomic structures of glasses. It is designed to recognize meaningful changes in atomic structure, rather than being affected by how atoms are positioned or labeled in traditional coordinate descriptions. Unlike many general-purpose AI models that often generate unrealistic atomic arrangements, GlassVAE includes “physics guardrails” based on structural features and energy, ensuring that the generated structures remain physically sensible.

Wisconsin MRSEC IRG 2 researchers have developed an efficient, accurate first-principles computational method that predicts how magnons and atomic vibrations (phonons) couple inside magnetic materials — a calculation that previously required prohibitively expensive computations. By predicting this coupling from the chemical composition of a material alone, with no fitted parameters, the new method lets researchers screen and design materials with longerlasting, higher performing spin waves before any sample is grown.

Wisconsin MRSEC IRG 2 members Daniel Rhodes and Yangchen He are commercializing new materials for advanced computing developed in part with MRSEC support. With support from the NSF I-Corps program and the Wisconsin MRSEC Advanced Materials Industrial Consortium, Rhodes and He have founded Pristine Quantum Inc. The company is based on their inventions of ultra low defect 2D semiconductor crystals and a method to print them directly onto industry-compatible substrates.

Wisconsin MRSEC IRG 1 researchers used three experimental techniques to characterize physical aging in organic semiconductor glasses. They showed that producing the glasses by physical vapor deposition can reduce the impact of aging by at least a factor of 10. In addition, they showed that routine laboratory measurements on bulk samples can provide reliable predictions for physical aging in the very thin films used in OLED displays. These results are relevant for OLED displays as glass stability is key to maintaining high efficiency, and they advance our MRSEC IRG goal to control mobility to create glasses with desirable properties.