Senior Investigators: J. M. Kikkawa & I.-W. Chen IRG Leaders; D. A. Bonnell, P. K. Davies, A. M. Rappe, J. M. Vohs IRG-5 focuses on creating & understanding novel hierarchical interfacial oxide materials. By juxtaposing oxides at various length scales, responsive instabilities appear at their interfaces & give rise to new functionality. This team has expertise in theory, synthesis, & experiment, tailored to studying these instabilities. Quantitative schstronges for modeling ferroelectrics (pioneered in the IRG), predict exciting effects between atomic layers of magnetoresistive & ferroelectric oxides and possible oxide applications to microfluidics.