IRGs

Co-leaders:
Young S. Lee
Daniel G. Nocera
Co-investigator:
Shaoyan Chu

This initiative has a strong focus on basic research, where the aim is to discover and understand the exotic phases that arise in strongly interacting electron systems. The materials of interest involve quantum spins on low-dimensional lattices for which strong fluctuations and/or geometric frustration tend to suppress the classically expected […]

Controlling Electrons at Interfaces
IRG Senior Participants:
Hector Abruña (C&CB, co-leader), Dan Ralph (Phys, co-leader), Piet Brouwer (Phys), Robert Buhrman (A&EP), J. C. Séamus Davis (Phys), Paul McEuen (Phys), David Muller (A&EP), Sandip Tiwari (ECE), R. Bruce van Dover (MS&E)
Collaborators: G. Coates (Cornell); W. Harneit (Freie Universität Berlin); C. W. Kim, M. K. Kim (Samsung […]

Dynamics of Growth of Complex Materials
IRG Senior Participants:
George Malliaras (MS&E, co-leader), David Muller (A&EP, co-leader), Tomás Arias (Phys), Jack Blakely (MS&E), Joel D. Brock (A&EP), Paulette Clancy (C&BE), James R. Engstrom (C&BE),
Collaborators: J. Anthony (U. Kentucky), D. Bowler (Univ. Coll. London), D. Dale (CHESS), R. Headrick (U. Vermont), A. Kazimirov (CHESS), H. […]

The next generation of polymer-based materials will rely on the incorporation of multiple components to achieve superior and tunable properties; this, in turn, will require control over chemical connectivity and morphology from the nanometer scale up to microns. The thermodynamic incompatibility of most polymer pairs demands a flexible strategy for designing hybrid materials in both […]

The unifying theme of the Magnetic Heterostructures group (IRG 3) is to achieve a thorough understanding of spin transport, magnetization dynamics, and exchange coupling in materials with precisely defined and well-characterized interfaces, including those with tailored interfacial disorder. Magnetism is the basis for many present, near term, and future technologies, including magnetic read heads and […]

Engineered nanoparticles present a wide range of opportunities for the synthesis and assembly of materials with entirely new electronic, optical or mechanical properties. They are of interest for materials science because their size-dependent characteristics give rise to an entirely new spectrum of materials properties. In addition, nanoparticles offer new ways of forming combinations of very […]

The research themes of IRG3 focus on the electronic properties of confined systems. Ongoing projects include the study of superconducting and semiconducting nanowires, ferroelectric thin films and a new effort on graphene sheets. These activities are complemented by a synthetic effort in low dimensional nanostructures. This has been a productive year for this IRG with […]

SEED Leader: Min Ouyang
We are interested in exploring new physics, materials and applications based on the spin degree of freedom of electrons and nuclei within ordered nano-engineered architecture with an emphasis on both development of novel synthetic methodologies for spin-based hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructures and fundamental studies of spin-charge interactions and spin transport within nanostructured […]

IRG1 investigates how magnetism affects electron transport in a broad class of novel materials with unusual magnetic states. The presence of strong interaction between electrons leads to a variety of magnetically ordered states ranging from ferromagnetism, ferrimagnetism, antiferromagnetism, spin density waves, and the spin-Peierls state. Strong interest in how magnetism affects charge transport has come […]

Research Goals: Microphotonic materials are rapidly emerging as one of the most promising new platforms for future optical devices and device components. Such materials allow an unprecedented level of control over the confinement and propagation of light, at dimensions that enabled the design and eventual integration of a large number and variety of optical micro devices on a single chip.

IRG 1 studies the effects of physics on the micron and sub-micron scale upon flows, and effects of flows upon microscale phenomena. Several projects approach this problem from complementary vantage points. One seeks to elucidate and control the singularities emerging in situations such as fluid ejection, droplet break-up or crumpling. The second studies flow structures occurring in microfluidic channels or at interfaces.

IRG3, Jamming and Slow Relaxation in Materials Far From Equilibrium, is developing a novel, unifying framework to understand the complex behavior of large classes of materials, from spin systems to supercooled liquids to granular matter, that become stuck in states far from equilibrium and defy description by conventional statistical mechanics. This interdisciplinary approach is based on the concept of “jamming” co-developed at Chicago. A first thrust investigates phenomena in which systems jam via self-organized processes. A second thrust extends the jamming phase diagram to include systems with externally imposed disorder.