Highlights

In a recent publication in Nature, we reported bulk metallic glass (BMG) matrix
composites exhibiting >10% tensile ductility and Fracture Toughness comparable to or
exceeding the toughest metals known [1]. These high performance composites
demonstrate the potential of metallic glass as revolutionary structural metals. The BMG matrix
composites contain elastically soft dendrites comprised of Ti-Zr-Nb embedded in
a glassy matrix. […]

Producing high quality thin films of controlled thickness is a critical step for the development of ferroelectric nanophotonic devices. Developed recently, the process referred to as layer transfer has been shown to be very promising: ions are implanted in a plan parallel to the interface of a bilayer system that is then heated. The high […]

The IRG on ferroelectric nanophotonic materials and devices seeks to develop tunable photonic devices by combining the nonlinear dispersion of photonic metamaterials with the unusual optical properties of ferroelectric perovskites. A series of experimental tests and theoretical calculations have demonstrated the potential of this approach. The bottom figure shows how the refractive index […]

When proteins are made inside cells, genetic information (in the form of messenger RNA) must be “translated” into specific sequences of amino acid building blocks. Accurate translation is essential to the health of the cell, and the idea that “one gene gives one protein” emerged very early in the development of the field of molecular […]

The recent decade has seen an explosion of optical communication. Yet much of the information processing is conducted electronically since there have been few truly tunable optical devices. Ferroelectric materials offer a potential solution. They possess interesting nonlinear properties that can be used to design and fabricate unique active tunable nanophotonic devices. Photonic crystals are […]

Researchers in the Center for the Science and Engineering of Materials (CSEM) at the California Institute of Technology are developing a new class of biomaterials for use in surgery and regenerative medicine. These new materials are produced by genetic engineering, and consist of pieces of natural proteins that have been stitched together in new […]