Understanding the locations of atoms as they are deposited on a surface is critical for growing interfaces of electronic device quality.

CRISP, the Yale MRSEC, has constructed a safe, user-friendly, oxide molecular beam epitaxy facility that is simple enough for effective use by undergraduates, yet capable of preparing research-grade samples

"I never knew I was so good in science. I'm going to be a research scientist when I grow up!"

Bimetallic gold/platinum nanorod motors spontaneously move towards hydrogen peroxide fuel when they are placed in a fuel gradient, the first time this behavior has been seen outside of the biological world. Download

Mobility measures how fast electrons travel in a material when an electric field (i.e.

Electrochemical oxidation of aluminum produces very regular arrays of nanopores. UMD-MRSEC researchers are mastering (1) nanopore synthesis and (2) deposition of coaxial multilayers of ultrathin films into the nanopores to create a new generation of devices for storing electrical energy that function as supercapacitors and batteries. These feature simultaneously higher power and higher energy storage than the best of today's devices, meeting the growing need for storing energy derived from new but intermittent sources (solar, wind, etc.).

Multiferroic Y(Lu)MnO3 undergoes an isostructural transition at the magnetic Neel transition, producing giant atomic displacement for every atom in the unit cell. It appears that this happens without either soft-mode degrees of freedom or orbital degrees of freedom. This extremely large magneto-elastic coupling is unprecedented - larger by two orders of magnitude than in any magnetic materials.

The quest for economical devices with faster speeds, lighter weights, and higher feature density drives demand for new fabrication tools that create ever more complex patt

Close-packed nanocrystal monolayers can be self-assembled by simple drop casting into ultra-thin free-standing membranes. Researchers at the University of Chicago MRSEC have shown that these membranes are remarkably strong, with a Young's modulus on the order of several GPa, yet highly flexible. The arrays remain intact and able to withstand tensile stresses up to temperatures around 370K.