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Thin block copolymer films are highly relevant for many scientific and industrial applications due to their ability to form uniform domains of controllable shape at nanometer length scales. From a technological point of view, the cases of shapes with long axes may be of interest in the fabrication of nanowires, while upright cylinders and spheres could have potential applications in the patterning of hexagonal arrays for data storage.

Block copolymer thin films are effective templates for fabricating large arrays of nanoscopic objects; for example, polymers which self-assemble into cylinders lying in the plane of the film yield striped patterns, which can be replicated in metal to yield nanowire grids which effectively polarize the short-wavelength ultraviolet light used in today’s advanced production photolithography.   But other applications demand more perfect order of the striped-pattern template:  perfectly straight and unbroken wires. 

Solid-state devices rely on the control of the flow of electrons and holes at the interface (“heterojunction”) formed between different semiconductors. Silicon is the workhorse of the semiconductor industry. However, until now, creating a heterojunction between Si and other materials with a larger energy gap has been an intractable problem for the most part, because of the lack of a lattice match between Si and crystalline wide-gap materials. In this seed, Sturm, Kahn,  Schwartz and Loo report two materials that do

The kagome lattice is an outstanding example of a frustrated magnet, a system in which the magnetic moments cannot satisfactorily align to minimize the energy. Its ground-state configuration has been a long-standing puzzle. Recent debate has focused on the relative stability of a valence bond-crystal, and an isotropic spin-liquid (where quantum fluctuations cause all ordering to disappear). Using numerical techniques, we have shown [1] that there is an intermediate competing

Biofilms are soft, largely organic, highly heterogeneous, self-generated, self-repairing thin films comprised of macromolecules, inorganic ions, and living matter. These films corrode petroleum pipelines and storage tanks, increase drag on shipping vessels, and account for the majority of hospital-treated infections. The mapping between microbial physiology and the material properties of biofilms is complex, of considerable economic importance, and largely uncharted. To date, physiology-biofilm

The electronic properties of the polar interfaces between insulating oxides has been intensely investigated in recent years. An exciting new development is the observation of robust magnetism at the interface of two non-magnetic materials, LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO).

During the summer of 2012, Hitachi Inc. loaned the UW-MRSEC education group a table-top scanning electron microscope for use during education and outreach activities. Thirteen fifth-graders synthesized ZnO nanoparticles then used the SEM to examine their particles. The education group sent a summary of the activity including photographs which Hitachi used for an article about the SEM which they published in the Japanese version of the Wall Street Journal.

NanoVenture is a board game developed by the UW-MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) to teach audiences about the connections between Nanotechnology and society. In 2012, with permission from the UW-MRSEC IEG, the Education Center Uchastie translated the game into Russian and they will be distributing it to schools in Russia as part of the School League of RUSNANO project.

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 underlying